Abstract
Table eggs can play an important role as functional food, especially if specially designed mixtures enriched with o-3 fatty acids, natural pigments and vitamins are used for their production. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the effects of inclusion of flax-corn meal co-extrudate (FCM) in combination with natural pigments in hens' diet on physical properties, yolk colour and fatty acid composition of eggs. One hundred and twenty Lohmann Brown laying hens were fed corn-soybean meal based diet with the addition of FCM at different levels: 0% (control C1 and C2), 13.50% experimental treatment (E1) and 22.50% experimental treatment (E2). The control treatment (C1) contained up to 3% fat, without added pigments while the control treatment (C2) contained up to 5% fat and synthetic pigments. Experimental treatments E1 and E2 (3% and 5% fat, respectively) had the same amount of natural pigments (1% carrot and 0.5% paprika). When compared with control eggs, no significant changes (p>0.05) in the egg quality characteristics were observed for E1 and E2 eggs. Desirable egg yolk colour of 12.78 RYCF (Roche Yolk Colour Fan scale) was achieved in the treatments E1 and E2. Eggs from hens fed FCM had significantly higher level (p<0.001) of a-linolenic (6.46% for E1 and 8.87% for E2), docosahexaenoic (2.01% for E1 and 2.08% for E2) and eicosapentaenoic (0.17% for E1 and 0.21% for E2) acids in comparison to eggs originated from hens fed control diets. The o-6/o-3 ratios of 1.43 and 1.01 in the treatments E1 and E2, respectively, were significantly lower (p<0.001) than o-6/o-3 ratios in the control treatments C1 and C2 (9.40 and 8.88, respectively). The content of tocopherol in eggs from the experimental treatments E1 and E2 were 6 and 8 times higher than in eggs from the control treatment C1 as well as 1.8 and 2.3 times higher than in eggs from the control treatment C2, respectively. By the addition of FCM and natural pigments in hens' diet, it is possible to produce functional egg with desirable colour and fatty acid composition.
Highlights
Nowadays there are numerous scientific research related to food and its health benefits, as well as relation between consumption of some functional food and the reduction of the risk of serious chronic diseases
Similar results obtained in both experimental treatments indicated that colour of egg yolk did not depend on the addition of co-extruded flaxseed (13.50% in E1; 22.50% in E2) in laying hens diet but only on carrot and paprika addition
As it can be seen, with the addition of flax-corn meal co-extrudate (FCM) in hens diet, the content of total saturated fatty acids, SFA (C14:0, C16:0, C18:0) was significantly lower (p
Summary
Nowadays there are numerous scientific research related to food and its health benefits, as well as relation between consumption of some functional food and the reduction of the risk of serious chronic diseases. The term functional food is described as food which contains active compounds that further have positive influence on physiological processes in organism and beneficial effects on human health. The functional food has to contain higher amount of some compounds, which positively influence human health. In the case where it isn’t naturally contained in sufficient amount, functional food must be further enriched with. Natural additives in functional egg production, Food and Feed Research, 46 (2), 199-207, 2019 these compounds. Nutritive profile of eggs can be enriched with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (ω-3, PUFA), minerals and vitamins by addition of these compounds in laying hen diet
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