Eggs Flashcards
What are the 4 different egg production systems?
- Barn
- Free-range
- Organic
- Enriched colony cage
What are the features of egg production systems?
- Hens are housed in buildings with one or more levels
- Hens have space to move around freely, litter for dust-bathing and scratching
- Nest boxes and perches
What is legally required for barn hens?
- Perches must be installed to allow 15cm of perch per hen
- Litter must be 1/3 of ground surface
- 9 hens per square metre
- 1 nest box per 5 hens
- Linear feeders- 10cm per hen
- Circular feeders- 4cm per hen
- Electrical lighting at optimum day length
- Red lion 16.5 birds per m squared, two enrichments per 1000 bird, max colony of 6,000
What are the features of free range systems?
- Hens must have continuous daytome access to runs which are mainly covered with vegetation- 2500 birds per hectare
- Same regulations of birds in barns- 9 hens per sqm
Red lion
* outdoor shading
* One pop-hole per 600 birds
* maximum flock size of 16,000 divded into 4000
* 2000 birds per hectare
What are the features of organic systems?
- Hens producing organic eggs are always free range
- Organic diet/land
- 6 hens per sqm of useable area
- Max flock 3000
- Must have nest box
- 18cm perch per hen
- Litter provided
Red Lion
* Additional height and width of pop-holes
* 8 hours outside access
* 2000 birds per hectare
What are the features of caged eggs?
- Across the EU conventional ‘battery’ cages have been banned
- New cages- 40-80 birds
- 750cm sq per bird
- Food in troughs fitted to cages and automatic water supply
- Lighting with optimum day length
What numbers on eggs show the method of production?
First number
0- organic
1- free range
2- barn
3- caged
Also on egg box
What are the 4 sizes of eggs?
- Small- under 53g
- Medium- 53-63
- Large- 63-73
- Very large- 73g
What are the two classes of egg quality?
Grade A
* Highest grade
* Naturally clean, fresh
* Shells intact
* Airsac not exceeding 6mm in depth
* Yolks do not move from centre
Grade B
* Eggs broken out and pasturised
Industrial- non-food use and only used in products such as shampoo or soap
What are the three basic parts of eggs?
- Shell or cuticle
- White albumen- protein vits
- Yolk- fats, vits, minerals
Vitalline membrane stops yolk leaking into albumen
What are common internal and eggshell faults?
Double yolked
* Young, highly productive lating hens
Blood spots- one of the tiny blood vessels breaking
Meat spots
* Brown in albumen- small pieces of tissue
Watery whites
* Internal quality drops with increasing flock age and disease
Abnormal yolk colour- green yolk from herbabe to excess
Mobile and bubbly airspace
* ruptured inner membrane
Bacterial and fungal
* Bacteria and moulds
Misshaped
* Poor quality albumen- crinkled
Rough shelled eggs
* two eggs in shell gland at the same time
Pale shelled eggs
* cosmetic
Shoft and weak shelled
* soft and weak shelled eggs older birds
Cracked eggs
* Hairline, star, pinhole
Dirst and glazed shells- mud and litter
What salmonella species is associated with eggs?
Salmonella Enteritidis
When is salmonella testing requuired for egg producers?
- More then 350 laying hens required for testing
Where are the problem areas for salmonella?
Handling and processing
* Failure to observe best before dates
* Inappropriate storage temp- below 8 degrees
* Cross contamination
When do you need to be registered as an egg produced?
- over 350 hens
- More then 50 hens marketed at local pulic markets
- Any eggs marketed to registred packing centres
