Egg Products

a mixture of the white and yolk of good-quality fresh or refrigerated chicken eggs in dried (egg powder) or frozen form. Egg whites and yolks may be frozen separately. Egg products are used as food. They are almost as nutritious as fresh eggs, but they are easier to transport and store longer. Frozen whole egg is sometimes produced with 0.8 percent common salt or 5 percent sugar added. (The chemical composition of egg products is given in Table 1.)

Eggs to be used for egg products are sorted and inspected with an ovoscope. The eggs that pass inspection are washed in a special machine, dried in a stream of air, and disinfected by bacteriocidal ultraviolet lights. The eggs are then broken in a special machine that collects the contents of each egg in a separate conveyor cup to check the quality by appearance and odor. Good-quality egg material is poured into a collector, mixed, filtered under pressure, and pasteurized for 40 seconds at 62°C. The mixture is held at 60°C for 20 minutes and then cooled to 15°–18°C. The cooled material is then used to produce egg powder or frozen whole egg.

Dried egg powder is produced in a tower dryer with disk- or jet-type atomization. Hot air (150°–158°C) is fed into the dryer, creating a temperature of 44°–50°C in the atomization zone. The finished product is packaged in plywood drums, paper bags, or cardboard boxes lined with polyethylene. For retail sale, egg powder is packaged in multilayered film, cardboard-and-metal or tin cans, or cardboard packages. Egg powder may be stored at a temperature of no more than 20°C and a relative air humidity of no more than 75 percent for as long as six months; at a temperature of 2°C or lower and a relative air humidity of 60–70 percent it may be stored for as long as two years.

To produce frozen whole egg, the egg material is poured by a dosing unit into sterilized hermetically sealed cans and put in a refrigeration chamber (–18°C) until the middle of the product is at a temperature of –5° or –6°C. Frozen whole egg to which salt or sugar has been added is frozen to –8° or – 10°C. The white and yolk of the eggs may be separated in the egg-breaking machine to produce frozen egg white or yolk; the production of frozen egg white or yolk is similar to that of frozen whole egg. Frozen egg products are stored at –5° or –6°C (whole egg with salt or sugar may be stored at –8° or – 10°C) for as long as eight months.

Organoleptic, physicochemical, and bacteriological tests are made according to established techniques to check the quality of egg products. Only egg products that meet standard requirements may be sold.