The Effect of Storage Period and Temperature on Egg Quality in Commercial Eggs

Consumers demand fresh and high-quality eggs. Egg quality may be represented by shell color, shell weight, egg weight, shell thickness, shell density, albumen height, yolk color, albumen pH and viscosity. Various factors such as strain, age of hen, storage temperature, humidity, the presence of $CO_2$ and storage time affect egg quality. Therefore, we investigated the effects of storage time and temperature on egg quality to define the freshness of Korean market eggs. A total of 1,800 eggs were used for this experiment and were separated into 45 treatments with 40 eggs in each. The treatments were consisted of 15 storage periods (2 d to 30 d) and 3 storage temperatures ($2^{\circ}C$, $12^{\circ}C$, $25^{\circ}C$). Each egg was weighed and broken, and the height of the thick albumen, Haugh units (HU), egg shell color and yolk color were measured by a QCM+system. We also observed the physiochemical properties of eggs such as yolk pH, albumen pH and albumen viscosity. The egg weight, shell weight, albumen height, HU and albumen viscosity significantly decreased with increasing storage time and temperature. However, the albumen and yolk pH significantly increased with increasing storage period and temperature. The interaction effects between the storage period and temperature were significant for shell weight, shell density, egg weight, albumen height, HU, yolk color, yolk pH, albumen pH and albumen viscosity. In the analysis of the correlation with egg quality, the storage temperature exhibited a higher correlation coefficient than the storage period. In conclusion, storage time and temperature are the major factors affecting egg quality, but the storage temperature is a more sensitive determinant of egg quality deterioration compared with the storage period.