Elimination of Pink White Discoloration in Stored Eggs from Hens Fed Treated Cottonseed Meal or Sterculic Acid

Abstract

COTTONSEED and its by-products are implicated in the discoloration of eggs in two ways: (1) gossypol produced olive or chocolate-brown yolks described by Schaible, Moore and Moore (1934) and Swensen, Fieger and Upp (1942); and (2) salmon colored yolks and pink whites associated with cottonseed meal feeding as reported by Sherwood (1928, 1931).Discoloration of egg albumin with the feeding of cottonseed meal to hens has been thought to be due to the passage of iron from the yolk into the white, followed by a reaction with conalbumin causing a pink discoloration of the albumin. Passage of conalbumin into the yolk also appears to cause the salmon yolk color (Schaible and Bandemer, 1946a, b). A weakened vitelline membrane may be the fundamental defect in eggs associated with cottonseed meal feeding (Sherwood, 1928; Almquist and Lorenz, 1932; Schaible, Bandemer and Davidson, 1946).The effect of pH on the development of “cottonseed…