EGGS

Prepared by
Eddie Tan Ti Tjih @ P.M. Dr. Noriham
Faculty of Applied Sciences
Universiti Teknologi MARA
Shah Alam
Ostrich egg (right), compared to chicken egg (lower left) and quail eggs (upper left)
 INTRODUCTION
• Give characteristic structure, texture n
appearance to many foods/food products

• An average-sized egg weighs approximately

57 grams.
260m eggs/hen/year

Yolk drop into the mouth of oviduct then

slowly pass down to oviduct

Covered with egg white-albumen

secreting cells

Mebranous tissue-protein secreting cells

Calsium and other minerals-mineral-

secreting cells near the bottom of oviduct
(Egg shell)

Fertilization?
Fetilised egg yolks produce embryos

Ruptures in ovary or oviduct can produce blood spots and meat specks

Disease and ovary and oviduct- eggs infected with bacteria or parasites

Healthy bird- sterile when freshly laid

Chalaziferous layer-immediate beyond vitelline membrane

Extensions of chalaziferous layer-chalazaes

Most outer layer-cuticle or “bloom”

Eggs washed, the cuticle removed, exposing the open pores of egg shell,
bacteria easily enter
 STRUCTURE
COMPOSITION OF EGG

Shell 11%

white 58%

yolk 31%
 Chemical composition of egg white
and egg yolk

Egg white Egg yolk

water 88 48

protein 11 17.5

fats 0.2 32.5

minerals 0.8 2.0

For over 30 years, many dietary guidelines have included a recommendation limiting
dietary cholesterol to less than 300 mg per day. This recommendation was based on
three lines of experimental evidence: animal studies indicating that dietary cholesterol
raises blood cholesterol resulting in atherosclerosis

Cholesterol can be both good and bad, so it's important to learn the
facts about what cholesterol is, how it affects your health and how to
manage your blood cholesterol levels.
This recent statements have contributed to increase consumer
confidence in eggs.

One egg contains about 213 milligrams of dietary cholesterol. The

daily recommended cholesterol limit is less than 300 milligrams for
people with normal LDL (bad) cholesterol levels.

An egg can fit within heart-healthy guidelines for those people only
if cholesterol from other sources — such as meats, poultry and
dairy products — is limited.

For example, eating one egg for breakfast, drinking two cups of
coffee with one tablespoon of half-and-half each, lunching on four
ounces of lean turkey breast without skin and one tablespoon of
mayonnaise, and having a 6-ounce serving of broiled, short loin
porterhouse steak for dinner would account for about 510 mg of
dietary cholesterol that day — nearly twice the recommended limit.

If you're going to eat an egg every morning, substitute vegetables

for some of the meat, or drink your coffee without half-and-half in
the example above. And remember that many other foods,
especially baked goods, are prepared with eggs — and those eggs
count toward your daily cholesterol limit. People with high LDL
blood cholesterol levels or who are taking a blood cholesterol-
lowering medication should eat less than 200 mg of cholesterol per
day
Schematic of a chicken egg:
1. Eggshell
2. Outer membrane
3. Inner membrane
4. Chalaza
5. Exterior albumen
6. Middle albumen
7. Vitelline membrane
8. Nucleus of pander
9. Germinal disk
10. Yellow yolk
11. White yolk
12. Internal albumen
13. Chalaza
14. Air cell
15. Cuticula
 SHELL

• Shell-porous structure mainly CaCO3 (94%)

• Shell contain pores for exchange of gases

• Two shell membranes, inner and outer, are found immediately within
the shell

• Keratin and mucin like membranes that acts as chief defenses against
bacterial invasion

• Air- space –blunt end of the egg separating the two shell membranes
 Egg White

3 layers:
• thin layer (outer thin albumen) next to shell, Exterior albumen

• thicker viscous (thick albumen) layer within it, Middle

albumen

• thin layer (inner thin albumen) surrounding yolk, Internal

albumen
• Fresh egg white: pH + 7.6

• After a few days of storage: pH 9.0 -9.4

• Contain mainly proteins:

1. OVALBUMIN
• Major egg white protein (70%), Phosphoglycoprotein

• Contains all the SH groups of egg white

• Very susceptible to denaturation

• Denatured albumin maintains structure of baked foods

2. GLOBULINS
 Formation of foam when beaten in the presence of air. Stabilized by
ovomucin
1. LYSOZYME(G1)-act as an anti- bacteria, stable to heat, cold and many
denaturation reagents. X stable in alkaline.
2. Euglobulin (G2)
3. G3

3. CONALBUMIN
 Chelates metal such as Cu n Fe

4. OVOMUCIN/ OVOMUCOID
 Give structure to the thickness of thick white
 Inhibiting hemagglutination (inhibitor), influenza virus-agglutinate RBC

5. AVIDIN
 Smaller ammount, bind biotin (B7) causing biotin deficiency, however,
cooking destroys avidin

6. FLAVOPROTEIN
 Form complex with riboflavin (Vit B2)
 Egg Yolk
• Made up of concentric layers of light and dark
Germinal disc
• where fertilization takes place, is attached to the yolk.

Chalazae
• Greek word khalazi, meaning hailstone or hard lump
• On opposite sides of the yolk are two, twisted, whitish cord-like objects
known as chalazae. Their function is to support the yolk in the center of
the albumen. Chalazae may vary in size and density, but do not affect
either cooking performance or nutritional value

Vitelline Membrane
• surrounds and holds the yolk
• the fresher the egg the stronger the membrane
• yolk colour ranges from light yellow to deep orange, depending on the
hen's food
 pH of fresh egg yolk: 6.0-6.3

 A few days after storage: 6.5-6.8

 Iron and other minerals and

vitamins which depends on the
fortification of the animal feed

 Four classes of egg yolk proteins:

 Lipovitellin (high density lipoprotein)
 Lipovitellenin (low density lipoprotein)
 Phosvitin
 livetin

 Fatty portion:
i. Neutral lipids-TG eg oleic, palmitic,
stearine, linoleic
ii. Phospholipids – phosphatidyl choline,
lecithin, cephalin
iii. Sterol – cholesterol
 Properties of egg yolk lipoprotein
• Gelation of egg yolk during freezing process
• Act as emulsifier eg; lecithin
 Salted duck egg

Century egg

Pickled egg, colored with beetroot juice

2 CH3COOH + CaCO3 => H2CO3 + Ca(CH3COO)2
carbonic acid calsium acetate
H2CO3 => H2O + CO2
 CHANGES IN THE QUALITY OF EGG
1. LOSS OF WEIGHT
• Due to evaporation of moisture through the shell
• Air space-enlarged.
• Evaporation can be delayed by increasing humidity, but this increases the danger
of mold growth

2. LOSS OF GASES (CO2)/ increase in pH

• The white of a freshly laid egg has an opalescent (cloudy) appearance due to the
presence of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide diffuses out of the egg.
• This may cause a rise from the fresh egg pH of 7.6 to as much as 9.4 in the white.
The pH of the yolk is initially around 6.0 with little rise in pH to 6.8.
• The carbon dioxide, a product of the metabolic pathways in the chicken, forms
carbonic acid and bicarbonate buffers. These no longer exist when it diffuses out.
• As CO2 loss, the pH of egg white increases

In egg: CO2 + H2O ↔ H2CO3

(carbonic acid)
3. AIR CELL INCREASES IN SIZE
• This occurs between the two membranes at the shell interface. Part of this is
due to the natural cooling of the egg, with concurrent shrinking of contents. Air
is physically drawn in during this shrinkage.
• The air cell continues to grow as the egg loses both moisture and carbon dioxide
through the pores during storage

4. GRADUAL THINNING OF EGG WHITE

• The albumen spreads to cover a relatively wide area when the egg is broken out
of shell
• Ovomucin appears to be an important participant in the thinning process
• The albumen of older eggs is more transparent than that of fresher eggs. Fresh
egg whites coagulate in the range 62° to 65°C, the temperatures decrease with
increasing pH and hence age. This is why very fresh eggs require more time to
cook than older eggs.

5. EGG YOLK FLATTENS

• The vitelline membrane weakens and stretches
• The network of fibres on the surface of the membrane, that are apparently part
of chalaziferous layer, tend to dissipate as the pH of albumen rises

6. DETERIORATION OF ODOUR AND FLAVOUR

• Depend upon storage conditions
• Bring about slight changes in the protein and fat of egg
the grade is generally assigned by a method called candling.

 This can be done as a automated system where light is shined

through the rotating egg to reveal condition of the shell, the size of
the air cell, and size, distinctness, color and mobility of the yolk.

Additionally abnormalities such as blood spots, embryonic

development, and spoilage are identified.
Egg whites, egg yolks, whole eggs, and egg washes brushed on breads
and other baked products add a rich, shiny glaze.

The glaze is caused primarily by the protein and fat interaction. The
simple glaze is generally made by adding a "little water" to the egg and
brushing it on.
 EFFECTS OF BOILING
Cooked in shell by immersing them in hot H20
Difficulty in peeling due to low pH unless pH of the
white is 8.9 or >
Eggs cooked in boiling H20 at 85oC for 18 mins
easier to peel than when cooked by placing them
in cold H2O, bringing to boil, removing from heat
and letting them to stand for 25 mins.

Formation of ferous sulphide:

Fe (mg/100mg) S (mg/100mg)
Egg white 0.03 211
Egg yolk 5-6 214
• Sulphur in egg white < stable than in egg yolk

• Hence when heat egg white for too long, hydrogen sulphide ( H2S)
gas will be produce

• H2S transfer inwards to the egg yolk and combine with Fe in egg
yolk

• H2S + Fe FeS + H2
» Form on the surface of egg yolk
» Fast cooling can avoid the formation of FeS
(harmless) (dark greeninsh colour)
» If > 30 mins (permanent)
The coagulation of eggs is critical to many food products. Coagulation is
simply the solidifying of the egg by the application of heat.

In many instances, the egg in a formula will serve to glue the product
together. For example, it is sometimes added to meat loaf or on the
surface of okra, in both instances serving as a glue.

It is of interest in the many products to know the coagulation mechanism of

the yolk and the white.

Following are the general temperatures at which various egg parts and egg
products will coagulate:
•egg white 62-65°C

•egg yolk 65-70°C

•custard 82°C

Generally, whole egg begins to become opaque at around 60°C and

increases in viscosity to 72°C. At 75°C it is a soft curd and increases in
firmness up to 87°C. Certainly, heat is the critical factor in bringing about
the denaturation of the egg protein and forming structure
• Negatively charged elements have the suffix -ide
Examples are oxide (O2-), sulfide (S2-), fluoride (F-), chloride (Cl-), bromide (Br-),
iodide (I-), nitride (N3-), hydride (H-)

• Polyatomic ions which include oxygen in the anion have the suffixes -ate or -ite.
"ate" means there is more oxygen in the anion than one ending in "ite"
Examples: sulfate (SO42-) has more oxygen than sulfite (SO32-), nitrate (NO3-) has
more oxygen in the anion than nitrite (NO2-)

• Other examples are carbonate (CO32-), phosphate (PO43-) and permanganate

(MnO4-)