Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences (2011) 10, 41–45

King Saud University

Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences

www.ksu.edu.sawww.sciencedirect.com

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Effect of storage period and strain of layer on internal

and external quality characteristics of eggs marketed

in Riyadh area

A.A. Alsobayel *, M.A. Albadry

Department of Animal Production, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Received 24 February 2010; accepted 6 April 2010

Available online 17 December 2010

*

16

El

Pe

do

KEYWORDS

Storage period;

Layers strain;

External egg quality;

Internal egg quality;

Human consumption

Corresponding author.

E-mail address: asobayel@

58-077X ª 2010 King Saud

sevier B.V. All rights reserve

er review under responsibilit

i:10.1016/j.jssas.2010.04.001

Production and h

ksu.edu.s

Universit

d.

y of King

osting by E

Abstract The study was undertaken to compare the effect of storage period on external and inter-

nal quality traits of brown and white shelled eggs produced by commercial layers and marketed in

Riyadh area. Two trays each containing 30 eggs from each egg color were randomly collected from

supermarket, three times at different time intervals. The eggs of each collection were randomly

divided into three groups of 20 eggs. The different egg groups were individually weighed and stored

in refrigerator for 0, 10 and 20 days at 7 �C and 60% relative humidity. Egg air cell depth (AC),

shape index (SI) and specific gravity (SG) were measured for all of the eggs in each group. Blood

(BS) and meat (MS) spots, Haugh unit values (HU), yolk color grade (C), shell weight (SW), shell

thickness (ST), egg surface area (SA), shell density (SD) and shell weight per unit of egg surface area

(SWUSA) of each individual eggs were measured. The results shows that white shell eggs had sig-

nificantly higher weight, surface area and lower shape index and blood spot incidence. Storage per-

iod had a significant (P < .05) adverse effect upon Haugh unit values, specific gravity, air cell depth

and shell thickness but a positive effect upon shell density and shell weight per unit of surface area

of brown and white shelled eggs but Haugh unit values of white shelled eggs were more adversely

affected by prolonged storage period. In conclusion, results showed that brown and white shelled

a (A.A. Alsobayel).

y. Production and hosting by

Saud University.

lsevier

42 A.A. Alsobayel, M.A. Albadry

eggs stored for 20 days at 7 �C and 60% relative humidity still maintain relatively good internal

quality characteristics for human consumption.

ª 2010 King Saud University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

It is well-known that external and internal egg quality traitshave a genetic basis and can be also affected by non-geneticfactors. Stadelman (1977) has defined egg quality as the char-acteristics of an egg that affect its consumer’s acceptability.

Egg quality has been considered the most important pricecontributing factors in table and hatching eggs. Therefore,the economic success of a laying flock solely depends on the to-

tal number of quality eggs produced. Shell and egg qualitycharacteristics have been shown to be influenced by genotypeand age. Several investigators reported significant genotype

differences with respect to egg weight (Anderson et al., 2004;Monira et al., 2003; Alsobayel et al., 1991, 2003; Harms andHussein, 1993; Hussein et al., 1993; Arafa et al., 1982), shellthickness (Curtis et al., 1985a; Doyon et al., 1980; El-Deek

et al., 1985; Hassanin, 1990; Harms and Hussein, 1993; Pandyet al., 1988; Monira et al., 2003), egg surface area (Hassanin,1990; Anderson et al., 2004; Alsobayel et al., 2003), shell

weight per unit of surface area (Curtis et al., 1985a; Hassanin,1990; Arad and Mader, 1982; Alsobayel et al., 2003) and shapeindex (Arad and Mader, 1982; Anderson et al., 2004; Monira

et al., 2003; Arafa et al., 1982) but shell density (Hassanin,1990; Alsobayel et al., 2003) and specific gravity (Andersonet al., 2004) were not affected by genotype. Shell thickness

(Hassanin, 1990; Arafa et al., 1982; Izat et al., 1985; Alsobayelet al., 1991), shell weight per unit of surface area (Hassanin,1990; Arad and Mader, 1982; Izat et al., 1985) and shell den-sity (Hassanin, 1990) decreased with advancing age, whereas

egg surface area increased (Hassanin, 1990; Sauter et al.,1981). However Izat et al. (1985) reported no significant age ef-fect upon shell weight per unit of surface area and shell den-

sity. Genotype differences were also found by severalinvestigators with respect to Haugh unit values (Doyonet al., 1980; Hassanin, 1990; Campos and Ferreira, 1981;

Renden et al., 1984; Curtis et al., 1985b; Alsobayel et al.,2003; Monira et al., 2003), yolk color (Hassanin, 1990; Kumaret al., 1971; Alsobayel et al., 2003) and blood and meat spots

(Aitken et al., 1973; Proudfoot and Gowe, 1973; Alsobayelet al., 2003). On the other hand, Hassanin (1990) did not findgenotype differences with respect to blood and meat spots.Similar results were found by Prasad et al. (1982) and Hamilton

(1978) with regard to yolk color and blood and meat spots,respectively. Haugh unit values decreased with advancing age(Alsobayel et al., 1991; Hill and Hall, 1980; Hamilton and

Sibbald, 1980; Izat et al., 1983; Sang et al., 1983; Lapaoet al., 1999), whereas yolk color and meat spots were alsoaffected by age (Hassanin, 1990) and also blood spots as re-

ported by Alsobayel et al. (1991). Storage time had a signifi-cant effect upon egg weight, shell thickness, shape index,(Monira et al., 2003), albumen height and Haugh unit (Moniraet al., 2003). Similarly found Lapao et al. (1999) with respect to

Haugh unit. However, very sparse informations are availableon external and internal quality traits of commercial eggs pro-duced locally and little informations published with respect to

the effect of storage period on their external and internal

quality. Therefore the study was conducted to compare andto assess the effect of storage period on external and internal

quality traits of brown and white eggs produced by commer-cial layers raised under local conditions and marketed inRiyadh area.

2. Materials and methods

A total of 360 brown andwhite shell eggswere used in this study.Two trays each containing 30 eggs from each egg color were ran-domly collected from supermarket, three times at different time

intervals. The eggs of each collection were randomly dividedinto three groups of 20 eggs and each group was considered asreplicate. The different egg groups were individually weighedto the nearest .01 g and stored in refrigerator for 0, 10 and

20 days at 7 �C and 60% relative humidity. Egg group storedfor 10 and 20 days were reweighed and egg air cell depth (AC)wasmeasured inmillimeter, using candling light and thin plastic

ruler for all of the eggs in each replicate. For egg quality charac-teristics study, eggs in each replicate of each eggshell color, werebroken-out and the presence of blood (BS) andmeat (MS) spots

visually determined. Haugh unit values (HU) (Haugh, 1937)were directly estimated using micrometer adjustable to eggweight and directly gives Haugh unit value (USDA, 2000). Yolk

color (YC) wasmeasured byRochColor Scale which has 15 col-or gradation from very pale to deep yellow (North and Bell,1990). The shell was washed carefully to remove albumen, anddried at 21–24 �C for 24 h and individually weighed (SW) to

the nearest .01 g. Shell thickness (ST), expressed in mm · 10was obtained at three locations, middle and both side of eachegg with membrane using dial touch micrometer.

Egg surface area (SA) in cm2 was calculated for each eggusing the following equation suggested by Nordstrom andQusterhout (1982):

SA ¼ 3:9782� egg weight0:7056

Shell density (SD) in g/cm2 was estimated for each eggusing the following equation (Curtis et al., 1985a):

SD ¼ SWðgÞ=SAðcm2Þ � STðcmÞ

Shell weight per unit of surface area (SWUSA) was alsodetermined using the following equation (Nordstrom and Qus-terhout, 1982):

SWUSA ¼ shell weightðmgÞ=surface areaðcm2Þ

Specific gravity (SG) was measured by method of Archime-des according to the following equation: SG = (weight of air)/(difference between weight of air and water) (North and Bell,

1990, p. 289).Data obtained were subjected to statistical analysis using

the General Linear Models procedures of SAS Institute

(SAS, 1998) using the following statistical model:

Yijk ¼ lþ Bi þ Sj þ BSij þ eijk

where Yijk is the kth observation of the ith breed (B), jth stor-age period. BSij is the interaction between breed and storage

Table 1 Effect of genotype and storage period on egg weight (EW), shell thickness (ST), egg surface area (SA), shell density (SD),

shell weight per unit of surface area (SWUSA), specific gravity (SG), air cell depth (AC) and shape index (SI) of brown (B) and white

(W) shelled eggs marketed in Riyadh area.

EW (g) ST (mm · 10) SA (cm2) SD (g/cm3) SWUSA (mg/cm2) SG AC (mm) SI

Genotype (G) ** NS ** NS NS NS NS **

B 57.18B 4.08 69.08B 2.015 82.07 1.073 4.08 77.73A

W 61.75A 4.07 72.88A 2.016 81.87 1.075 4.06 74.48B

Storage period (days) NS ** NS ** ** ** ** NS

0 59.84 4.14A 71.31 1.92C 79.29B 1.095A 2.27A 76.38

10 59.38 4.10A 70.90 2.03B 82.86A 1.081B 4.27B 75.88

20 59.17 3.99B 70.73 2.10A 83.76A 1.046C 5.68C 76.06

G · S NS NS NS NS NS NS NS NS

SEM ±0.429 ±0.0021 ±0.356 ±0.009 ±0.466 ±0.0016 ±0.043 ±0.231

NS: Non-significant.

Means in the same column with different superscripts differ significantly (P< .05).** Highly significant (P < .01).

Table 2 Effect of genotype and storage period on Haugh unit

values (HU), blood (BS) and meat (MS) spots percent and yolk

color grades (YC) of brown (B) and white (W) shell eggs

marketed in Riyadh area.

HU value BS (%) MS (%) YC grade

Genotype (G) NS ** NS NS

B 79.48 0.19B 0.20 5.54

W 79.39 0.05A 0.13 5.55

Storage period (days) ** * NS NS

0 84.72A 0.15A 0.13 5.47

10 79.57B 0.03B 0.23 5.63

20 74.03C 0.17A 0.14 5.54

G · S * ** NS NS

SEM ±0.401 ±0.022 ±0.028 ±0.110

NS: Non-significant.

Means in the same column with different superscripts differ

significantly (P< .05).* Significant (P < .05).** Highly significant (P < .01).

Effect of storage period and strain of layer on internal and external quality characteristics 43

period. l is the general mean and eijk is the random error asso-ciated with Yijk observation. Shell, albumen and yolk weight

percentages were transformed to arc sinp

proportion priorto statistical analysis.

3. Results and discussion

As it is shown in Table 1 genotype (G) had a significant(P < .01) effect only upon EW, SA and SI, whereas storage per-

iod (S) had a significant (P < .01) only upon ST, SD, SWUSA,SG and AC. On the other hand G · S had no significant effectupon all studied external traits. White shelled eggs had signifi-

cantly (P < .05) higher weight and SA and lower SI than brownshelled eggs, but both had statistically similar ST, SD, SWUSA,SG and AC. Several investigators reported similar results with

regard to EW (Monira et al., 2003; Harms and Hussein, 1993;Hussein et al., 1993; Arafa et al., 1982; Alsobayel et al., 2003;Anderson et al., 2004; Shafey et al., 2002), SA (Hassanin,1990; Shafey et al., 2002; Anderson et al., 2004; Alsobayel

et al., 2003) and SI (Anderson et al., 2004; Monira et al.,2003; Arafa et al., 1982), ST (Shafey et al., 2002), SD (Hassanin,1990; Shafey et al., 2002; Alsobayel et al., 2003) and SG

(Anderson et al., 2004). However, different from our results,some investigators reported genotypic differences in ST (Curtiset al., 1985a; Doyon et al., 1980; El-Deek et al., 1985; Hassanin,

1990; Harms and Hussein, 1993; Pandy et al., 1988; Moniraet al., 2003) and SWUSA (Curtis et al., 1985a; Hassanin,1990; Arad and Mader, 1982; Alsobayel et al., 2003).

The discrepancy in the results of the different investigators

with respect to some external egg traits might be due to the dif-ferent breeds used, age of the breeds and experimental condi-tions. In our study white shelled eggs has SI value of 74.48

which was close to the ideal shape (74) reported by Northand Bell (1990), while brown shelled eggs had higher SI(77.73) which means that they have a rounder shape and are

more frequently liable to break when moved through market-ing channels. Table 1 shows that egg stored for 10–20 daystended to have lower weight and SA than 0 days stored eggs.

On the other hand, SG and ST decreased, while AC, SD andSWUSA increased significantly (P < .05) with increasingstorage period. Our result partially agrees with that of Moniraet al. (2003) who reported that EW, SI and ST significantly

decreased with increased holding time from 1 to 21 days at,on the average, 27.4 �C and 80.50% relative humidity and withthat of Akyurek and Okar (2009) who reported a clear nega-

tive effect of storage time up to 14 days at 4 and 20 �C onweightloss, air cell depth, specific gravity and shell weight.A high correlation between ST and SG (0.78) and between

both and force to crush the shell (0.73 and 0.70) was reportedby Stadelman and Cotterill (1977). However egg weight wasvery weakly correlated (0.1) with the force to crush the eggas reported by the same authors. Eggs stored for 0, 10 and

20 days had 2.27, 4.27and 5.68 mm AC depth which put themin grade AA, A and B, respectively (USDA, 2000). Genotypehad a significant (P < .05) effect upon BS and storage time

upon HU and BS while HU, MS and YC were not significantlyaffected by genotype and MS and YC by storage period,respectively (Table 2). Similar results were found by Akyurek

and Okar (2009) with respect to the effect of storage periodon HU. However, G · S effect was significant (P < .05) onlyupon HU and BS. Brown shelled eggs had significantly(P< .05) higher BS and tended to have higher HU and MS

and lower YC. HU significantly (P < .05) decreased with

65

70

75

80

85

90

20100

Storage Period in days

HU

BWa

a

b

b

c

c

Figure 1 Effect of G · S on Haugh unit value (HU) of brown (B)

and white (W) shelled eggs.

0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

100 20Storage Period in days

BS

(%

)

BW

A

A

BB

CC

Figure 2 Effect of G · S on blood spot incidence (BS) of brown

(B) and white (W) shelled eggs.

44 A.A. Alsobayel, M.A. Albadry

increasing storage time. However the effect of storage period

on BS was not consistent. Fig. 1 showed that increased storageperiod had a relatively more adverse effect upon HU of whiteshelled eggs compared with that of brown ones. Similar trend

was noticed by Silversides and Scott (2001) who stored brownand white shelled eggs up to 10 days. Fig. 2 shows an inconsis-tent effect of storage period upon BS of white and brownshelled eggs, although brown shelled eggs had significantly

(P < .05) higher values for 0 and 20 days and white shelledeggs for 10 days storage period. This result might be due tothe number of eggs having BS in each experimental group

rather than to the effect of storage period. However, thoughHaugh unit values decreased with increasing storage period,they were still considered to be grade AA (72 or more) accord-

ing to the USA standard (USDA, 2000).

4. Conclusion

The results of the study indicated that white shelled eggs hadhigher weight, surface area and lower shape index and bloodspots incidence than brown shelled eggs while prolonged stor-

age period had an adverse effect upon Haugh unit values, spe-cific gravity, shell thickness and air cell depth but a positiveeffect upon shell density and shell weight per unit of surfacearea of white and brown shelled eggs but Haugh values of white

shelled eggs were more adversely affected by prolonged storage

period. The results, under the experimental conditions, alsoshowed that brown and white shelled eggs stored for 20 daysat 7 �C and 60% relative humidity still maintain relatively good

internal quality characteristics for human consumption.

References

Aitken, J.R., Dickerson, G.E., Gowo, R.S., 1973. Effect of intake and

source of protein on laying performance of seven strains under

single and double cage housing. Poultry Sci. 52, 2127–2134.

Akyurek, H., Okar, A.A., 2009. Effect of storage time temperature and

age on egg quality in free range layer hens. J. Anim. Vet. Adv. 8

(10), 1953–1985.

Alsobayel, A.A., Attia, F.M., Albadry, M.A., 1991. Influence of

protein rearing regimens and age on egg quality characteristics of

Baladi and Leghorn Laying Hens. J. King Saud Univ., Agric. 3 (2),

201–211.

Alsobayel, A.A., Al-Batshan, H.A., Albadry, M.A., 2003. Effect of

Salicornia Bigelovii Torr Meal and age on egg quality character-

istics of Baladi and Leghorn Laying Hens. J. King Saud Univ.,

Agric. Sci. 15 (2), 101–113.

Anderson, K.E., Tharrington, J.B., Curtis, P.A., Jones, T., 2004. Shell

characteristics of eggs from historic strains of single comb white

leghorn chickens and the relationship of egg shape to shell strength.

J. Poultry Sci. 3 (1), 17–18.

Arad, Z., Mader, J., 1982. Egg-shell water vapour conductance of the

domestic fowl: comparison between two breeds and their crosses.

Br. Poultry Sci. 23, 325–328.

Arafa, A.S., Harms, R.H., Miles, R.D., Christmas, R.B., Choi, J.H.,

1982. Quality characteristics of eggs from different strains of hens

as related to time of oviposition. Poultry Sci. 61, 842–847.

Campos, E.J., Ferreira, M.O.O., 1981. Effects of strain, dietary energy

level and storage time on egg quality and yolk cholesterol in eggs

from commercial laying hens. Rquivos da Escola de Veterinaria da

Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais 3 (2), 313–319.

Curtis, P.A., Gardner, F.A., Mellor, D.B., 1985a. A comparison of

selected quality characteristics of brown and white shell eggs. I.

Shell quality. Poultry Sci. 64, 297–301.

Curtis, P.A., Gardner, F.A., Mellor, D.B., 1985b. A comparison of

selected quality characteristics of brown and white shell eggs. II.

Interior quality. Poultry Sci. 64, 302–306.

Doyon, G.M., Bernier-Cardou, M., Hmilton, R.M.G., Castaigne,

Maclean, H., 1980. 1. Shell strength of eggs from five commercial

strains of White Leghorn hens during their first laying cycle.

Poultry Sci. 59, 1082–1089.

El-Deek, A.A., Isshak, N.S., Hamdy, S., Badawy, Asar, M.A., 1985.

Performance of two strains of laying hens fed on practical diets

containing different levels of seaweed during the rearing and laying

stages. Egypt. Poultry Sci. 5, 1–11.

Hamilton, R.M.G., 1978. Observation on the changes in physical

characteristics that influence egg shell quality in ten strains of

White Leghorns. Poultry Sci. 57, 1192–1197.

Hamilton, R.M.G., Sibbald, I.R., 1980. The effects of level and source

of ammonium sulphate on feed intake, egg production and egg

quality in White Leghorns pullets and force molted hens. Poultry

Sci. 59, 119–127.

Harms, R.H., Hussein, S.M., 1993. Variation in yolk: albumen ratio in

hen eggs from commercial flocks. J. Appl. Poultry Res. 2 (2).

Hassanin, M.N.F., 1990. Studies on some factors influencing some egg

quality characteristics. M.Sc. Thesis, Dept. of Animal Production,

College of Agric., KSU.

Haugh, R.R., 1937. The Haugh unit for measuring egg quality. US

Egg Poultry Mag. 43, 552–555.

Hill, A.T., Hall, J.W., 1980. Effect of oil spraying, washing, sanitizing,

storage time, strain and age of layer upon albumen quality changes

in storage and minimum sample sizes required for their measure-

ment. Poultry Sci. 59, 2237–2242.

Effect of storage period and strain of layer on internal and external quality characteristics 45

Hussein, S.M., Harms, R.H., Junky, D.M., 1993. The influence of layer

age on the yolk: albumen ratio in hen eggs. Poultry Sci. 60, 594–597.

Izat, A.L., Grander, F.A., Mellor, B., 1983. The effects of age and

season on selected quality characteristics of shell eggs from several

strains of commercial laying hens. Poultry Sci. 62, 1440 (Abstr.).

Izat, A.L., Grander, F.A., Mellor, D.B., 1985. Effects of age of bird

and season of the year on egg quality. 1. Shell quality. Poultry Sci.

64, 1900–1906.

Kumar, J., Acharya, R.M., Aggarwal, C.K., 1971. Collection and

valuation of native fowl germplasm. VI. Studies on egg quality in

Desi, Rhode Island Red and their reciprocal crosses. Indian J.

Anim. Sci. 41, 381–385.

Lapao, C., Gama, L.T., Soares, M.C., 1999. Effects of broiler breeder

age and length of egg storage on albumen characteristics and

hatchability. Poultry Sci. 78, 640–645.

Monira, K.N., Salahuddin, M., Miah, G., 2003. Effect of breed and

holding period on egg quality characteristics of chicken. Int. J.

Poultry Sci. 2 (4), 261–263.

Nordstrom, J.O., Qusterhout, L.E., 1982. Estimation of shell weight

and shell thickness from egg specific gravity and egg weight.

Poultry Sci. 61, 1991–11995.

North, M.O., Bell, D.D., 1990. Commercial chicken production

manual. An Avi Book, fourth ed. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New

York, USA, p. 289, 679.

Pandy, N.K., Mahapatra, C.M., Verma, S.S., Johani, D.C., 1988.

Effect of strain on physical egg quality characteristics in White

Leghorn chickens. Ind. J. Poultry Sci. 21, 304–307.

Prasad, A.J., Kothandaraman, P., Kadirvel, R., Krishnan, A.R., 1982.

Influence of strains, housing and seasons on egg quality traits in

White Leghorn pullets. Anim. Breed. Abstr. 50, 1656.

Proudfoot, F.G., Gowe, R.S., 1973. The influence of an increasing

photoperiod, a modified natural daylength and feed restriction

during the rearing period on the performance of five S.C.W.L.

genotypes. Poultry Sci. 53, 518–528.

Renden, J.A., McDaniel, G.R., McGuire, J.A., 1984. Egg character-

istics and production efficiency of Dwarf (DW) White Leghorn

hens divergently selected for body weight. Poultry Sci. 63, 214–221.

Sang, B.C., Han, S.W., Ohh, B.K., Chang, S.B., 1983. Studies on the

heritabilities and genetic correlations of interior egg quality traits in

layers. Korean J. Anim. Sci. 25 (5), 438–444.

SAS Institute, 1998. SAS User’s Guide: Version 5 Edition. SAS

Institute Inc., Cary, NC.

Sauter, E.A., Petersen, E.E., Steele, E.E., Parkinson, J.F., 1981. Inter-

relationship of egg weight, surface area and specific gravity as

related to egg shell quality. Poultry Sci. 60, 1725 (Abstr.).

Shafey, A.A., Alsobayel, A.A., Al-Mohsen, T.H., Al-Batshan, H.A.,

2002. Effects of eggshell pigmentation and egg size on the spectral

properties and characteristics of egg shell of meat and layer breeder

eggs. Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 15 (2), 297–302.

Silversides, F.G., Scott, T.A., 2001. Effect of storage and layer age on

quality of eggs from two lines of hens. Poultry Sci. 80, 1240–1245.

Stadelman, W.J., 1977. Quality identification of shell eggs. In:

Stadelman,W.J., Cotteril, D.J. (Eds.), Egg Science and Technology,

second ed. AVI Publishing Company Inc., Westport, CT, p. 33.

Stadelman, W.J., Cotterill, J.C., 1977. Egg Science and Technology.

AVI Publishing Company Inc., Westport, CT, p. 34.

USDA, 2000. Egg grading manual. Agricultural Marketing Service.

USDA, Washington, DC.