Study on enhancement of poultry egg shelf life under room storage

Abstract

Eggs are nutritious food commodities that are consumed all around the world. Freshness is a major contribution to egg quality. However, eggs are perishable and susceptible to quality losses, and contaminated with certain microorganisms during storage. Currently, there are very few companies such as Ba Huan, CP, and Dabaco in Vietnam operating technology for processing poultry eggs and most of the eggs are sold untreated (no washing or disinfection). The study aims to determine the effect of saline, hot water, and Litsea cubeba essential oil (EO) on the freshness of chicken eggs including weight loss, air cell size, Haugh unit, Yolk index, pH, total viable count properties and shelf life of eggs at 37⁰C storage. The best preservation effect was found in the sample sprayed with L. cubeba EO at 4 mg/mL, followed by dipping in hot water at 65⁰C for 90 s and dipping in saline solution at 0.9% for 30 s to maintain the freshness of egg. The EO-treated egg could remain at average quality for up to 16 days at 37⁰C compared to 7 days of untreated sample. The obtained results demonstrated the potential application of natural products in food preservation.