Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LV
Written by Anca-Maria GALIȘ, Ilie VAN, André THÉWIS
Table eggs represent one of the most valuable sources of proteins for the human diet. Therefore, their quality is a very important aspect for food safety and for public health. During a period of 6 months, samples of table eggs were collected as it follows: 20 samples of each category of exploitation systems for laying hens (organic, free-range, aviary and cage production). Duplicates of the following examinations were performed: Roche index (10 samples/week); total content of proteins, lipids, water and ash (two samples/week); CFU/eggshell as well as presence of Salmonella in the contents using three different selective agar media (8 samples/week). From the total number of 480 samples of each category, results showed the following: for the Roche index, organic eggs were evaluated at 10-11, for free-range and aviary ones, values reached 13 and for cage production systems, 8-9. The content of proteins (%) was higher for free-range eggs (12.48). The content in lipids showed high values for cage production eggs (11 %), but with close values for the other categories, reaching the minimum to 10.7 % in aviary eggs. As for the water content, the highest value was observed for free-range eggs, and for ash the lowest value was observed for cage production eggs, while the highest for organic eggs. Microbiological quality of table eggs revealed a significant bacterial load for the eggshell, of up to 5.06 log CFU/eggshell for free-range eggs, and 5.04 log CFU/eggshell for organic ones. Industrial systems revealed a lower bacterial load, of up to 4.83 log CFU/eggshell for aviary-obtained eggs and 4.67 log CFU/eggshell for cage production eggs. The number of samples in which Salmonella presence was detected was at it follows: 33 % of the organic table eggs samples, 28 % for the free-range table eggs, 25 % for the aviary-obtained table eggs and 14 % for the cage production ones. From the consumer point of view, eggs obtained in free-range and aviary systems could be the most appreciated ones. Chemically, results are very close from a category to the other, while the microbiological quality may differ, as a wide range of factors contribute to a certain bacterial load on the eggshell as well as for the presence of Salmonella.
[Read full article] [Citation]
{tag}meta name="citation_title" content="Organoleptic, chemical and microbiological quality of table eggs obtained in different exploitation systems for laying hens in Romania"{/tag} {tag}meta name="citation_journal_title" content="Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science"{/tag} {tag}meta name="citation_publication_date" content="2012"{/tag} {tag}meta name="citation_author" content="Anca-Maria GALIȘ" {/tag} {tag}meta name="citation_author" content=" Ilie VAN" {/tag} {tag}meta name="citation_author" content=" André THÉWIS" {/tag}
eggs
