Czech J. Food Sci., 2011, 29(6):569-574 | DOI: 10.17221/362/2010-CJFS

Microbiological measurements for the development of a new preservation procedure for liquid egg

Csaba Németh¹, Balázs Mráz¹, László Friedrich¹, Ágnes Suhajda², Béla Janzsó², Csaba Balla¹

¹ Department of Refrigeration and Livestock Products Technology, Faculty of Food Science, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

² Department of Applied Biotechnology and Food Science, Faculty of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary

Since recently, the food industry has been increasingly using ready-to-process egg products as the basic materials instead of shell eggs. Subsequent to breaking shell eggs and completing pasteurisation, they are put on the market as liquid egg products or in powdered form as dried eggs. Consumers prefer liquid eggs which better preserve the advantageous properties of natural eggs, however, their shelf life is short with quick spoilage. We have examined, how long heat treatment is needed at temperatures below pasteurisation to influence the microbiological status of liquid egg products and in this way also their shelf life. A significant difference was found between the microorganism reducing effects of the commonly used pasteurisation process and that of keeping liquid eggs at 55°C for 24 hours. While pasteurisation can only "considerably" reduce the viable cell count in liquid egg products, keeping the product at 55°C for 24 h would very probably result in no or very low viable cell count.

Keywords: egg product; microorganism; Enterobacteriaceae family; incubation

Published: December 31, 2011  Show citation