Abstract
The quality of liquid egg white (LEW) during storage is critical for the development of the egg industry. In order to effectively control its storage quality, the effects of packaging materials and storage conditions on the quality of LEW were investigated. High-throughput sequencing (HTS) was applied to explore changes in bacterial population proportions and microflora in the spoilage of LEW. The shelf life of LEW packaged with glass (LEW-PG), plastic (LEW-PP), and tinplate (LEW-PT) was preliminarily determined to be 8, 5, and 7 days, respectively. LEW-PG possessed superior sensory scores (65) and L values (87.5), and a lower growth rate of total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) content among the three samples on the last day of shelf life, and was chosen for further study. During 24 days of storage, the sensory scores of the LEW-PG in 10 °C and 4 °C groups decreased by 32.7% and 25.7%, respectively. There was no significant difference in foaming properties of LEW-PG between the 10 °C and 4 °C groups (p > 0.05). HTS analysis showed that the abundance of species composition in the 10 °C samples was higher than that in the 4 °C samples, though the latter possessed a higher community diversity. At the genus level, the dominant bacteria in the 10 °C group were Pseudomonas (21.79%), others (19.21%), and Escherichia (11.21%), while others (37.5%), Escherichia (30.40%), and Bifidobacterium (17.72%) were highly abundant in the 4 °C samples. It is hoped that this study could provide theoretical support for quality control of LEW during storage.
Highlights
Liquid egg product is a substitute for shell egg consumption, which is obtained by shell-breaking, shell-separation, egg-yolk separation, filtration, homogenization and pasteurization
With an increase in storage time, the total bacterial count of liquid egg white (LEW)-PG (6th day), LEW-PP (3rd day), and LEW-PT (4th day) began to increase sharply, which may be related to the decrease of antibacterial substance and thick white as well as the increase in thin white and dominant spoilage organisms
The total bacterial count of LEW packaged with glass (LEW-PG) (9th day), LEW-PP (6th day), and LEW-PT (8th day) were greater than 1*106 CFU/mL, which exceeded the limit of pathogenic bacteria in food [24]
Summary
Liquid egg product is a substitute for shell egg consumption, which is obtained by shell-breaking, shell-separation, egg-yolk separation, filtration, homogenization and pasteurization It has a more controllable quality, more convenient use, and greater safety and convenience during storage and transportation in comparison with shelled egg [1]. Many studies have highlighted several emerging sterilization technologies to improve microbial safety, as well as functionality and nutritionality of LEW products, such as ohmic heating [10], high hydrostatic pressure [11], and ultrahigh temperature [12]. Apart from these approaches, other important issues for the preservation of the quality of LEW are packaging materials and storage conditions. It has been reported that the properties of food substrates and storage conditions are related to the amount of migration [18] it is urgent to find optimal packaging materials and storage conditions that are suitable for LEW that are combined with its characteristics
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