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

Abstract

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.