SAMPLE SIZES REQUIRED FOR PREDICTING ALBUMEN QUALITY IN STORED EGGS FROM EIGHT COMMERCIAL STOCKS

Abstract

Over a period of 48 wk, eggs were sampled from the eight commercial strains in a layer evaluation test. Half the eggs were oiled as laid. All eggs, except those broken on day 1, were washed and graded 4 days after lay. Samples of eggs were broken at 1, 5, 12, 19 and 26 days after lay for Haugh unit determination. The number of eggs required to assure the mean Haugh unit value in the sample, within ±2.5 Haugh units of the mean of the population, 90% of the time, was computed. This sample size varied with age of the layer, from 19 to 52 for eggs of layers of brown-shelled eggs and from 16 to 32 for eggs from layers of white-shelled eggs. Days in storage and oiling had comparatively little effect on these sample sizes. The Haugh unit losses varied with length of storage, age of birds and oiling from 1.8 to 22.1. The implications of these losses upon the maintenance of Canada’s egg-grading standards are discussed.