Keywords

Egg, food storage

Abstract

Dehydration reduces egg mass and increases shelf-life without significantly affecting most functional properties. This has created a demand for dehydrated whole egg in military rations, emergency relief programs and personal storage. However, because such products are usually stored before use, the buyer may be unaware of product quality until long after purchase. The purpose of this study was to investigate the quality of several brands of dehydrated whole egg commercially packaged in No. 10 cans. Eight brands of dehydrated whole egg were obtained from food retailers. All but 1 brand were labeled as having a low oxygen environment. A 50 member consumer panel evaluated appearance, aroma, flavor, texture, and overall acceptability using a 9-point hedonic scale. Other observations included color of egg solids, can headspace oxygen, can seam quality and water activity. Hedonic scores for overall acceptability ranged from 3.5 to 6.3, indicating wide variation between brands. Appearance, flavor and texture scores mirrored overall acceptability scores. A significant difference in Hunter color values was observed, with two brands visibly brown in the dry solid state and after reconstitution and cooking. Headspace oxygen ranged from 0.28 to 18.8% with more than half of the brands having > 2% oxygen. Water activity ranged from 0.16 to 0.42. The brand which scored highest in overall acceptability had 18% headspace oxygen, suggesting a detrimental effect on shelf life. Although all samples were purchased immediately before the study, can codes indicated a 3-year age difference between brands. This was reflected in panel results. The quality of dehydrated whole egg available for retail sale varies widely, as does the quality of packaging. Manufacturers need to adhere to good manufacturing practices and buyers should be aware of product variability between brands of dehydrated whole egg.

Original Publication Citation

Gnadt, TA Ogden, LV Pike, OA. Quality of dehydrated whole egg packaged in No. 1 cans. Poster presentation. Annual Meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists in Chicago.