Chitosan coating.

Researchers wanted to see how a chitosan coating and various storage positions of eggs (small-end down, small-end up or horizontal) would affect the internal quality and shelf life of the eggs during five weeks of storage at 25 C.

Compared with noncoated eggs, all chitosan-coated eggs, irrespective of their storage positions, had significantly less weight loss, higher Haugh units, which are units used to indicate egg freshness, and a higher yolk index throughout the storage period. The chitosan coating, irrespective of the position of the samples during storage, extended the shelf life of the eggs by at least three weeks at 25 C compared with the noncoated eggs. Noncoated and chitosan-coated eggs placed small-end down tentatively had better quality than eggs placed small-end up after three and four weeks of storage.

After five weeks of storage, the different storage positions did not significantly affect the quality of either the noncoated or coated eggs. There were no notable differences in the total amino acid content of the albumen and fatty acid composition of the yolk of the samples.

Contact: Hong Kyoon No, Department of Food Science and Technology, Catholic University of Daegu, Hayang 712-702, South Korea. Phone: [phone]. Fax: [phone]; Email: [e-mail].