Some Physical Factors Related to Egg Spoilage

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONMANY of the factors which contribute to the entrance of organisms into an egg are known. It was first reported by Haines and Moran (1940) that the immersion of a warm egg in a cool bacterial suspension accelerated spoilage. This technique of enhancing infection has been employed regularly by numerous investigators to study methods of controlling egg spoilage, e.g. thermostabilization (Funk, 1950), pasteurization with and without bactericidal compounds (Lorenz et al., 1952), fumigation, (Lorenz et al., 1950), controlled atmosphere in cold rooms (Moran, 1935) and short term immersion in boiling water (Feeney et al., 1954). There appears to have been no work reported on efforts to induce the introduced spoilage organisms to egress.Subsequently isolated eggs laid by healthy hens are usually bacteriologically sterile (literature reviewed by Wolk et al., 1950). Therefore any bacteria are introduced by the environment. The microbial populations that develop on the shell surface do …