The 2020 report recently published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that food supply has been interrupted and 135 million people in 55 countries face difficulties in accessing food at crisis level due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The fact that animal products spoil faster than herbal products has hindered delivery of such products to people during this period, and caused numerous products, particularly eggs, to be stocked up in the domestic market due to closure of the borders, or selling of such products at a loss by manufacturers. According to scientific research, reduction in the quality, even spoilage particularly of animal products, are observed with increasing stocking time.

During this period, we, as Vimar, are proud to present Egg Shelf Life that improves the internal quality characteristics of and provide an opportunity for healthy and safe consumption for consumers for eggs, a food that has a very important place in human diet.

With the natural aromatic ingredients supplemented by vitamins and minerals, ‘Vimar Egg Shelf Life’ is a product having a very high antioxidant capacity. The values of improvement it provides for the shelf life and internal quality characteristics of eggs, which would otherwise be spoiled due to oxidation, are presented in the tables below that contain the trial results.

Animal Material: 100,000 Babcock White layers of 73 weeks of age were used in the trial as the animal material. The layers were divided into 2 groups as the control and trial groups.

Feed material: The animals received layer feed. The feed given to the control and trial groups were formulated as isocaloric and isonitrogenic. 0.5 kg per ton (Vimar Egg Shelf Life) was added as additive to the feed given to the trial group.

RESULTS

Table 1. Effect of the Egg Shelf Life addition on the egg quality parameters.

Uludağ University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (May 2019)

Fresh		1st Month of Storage		2nd Month of Storage	3rd Month of Storage
Egg Weight, (g) (n=30)	-	-	-	-	-	-
Control 63.48	± 0.67	62.65 ±	0.82	60.92 ± 1.09	57.26 ±	0.87
Trial 62.70 group.(0.5kg/ton)	± 0.81	62.70 ±	0.81	60.99 ± 0.80	58.89 ±	0,70
Significance (P-value)	0.465	0.964	-	0.956	0.150	-
Shape index, (%) (n=30)	-	-	-	-	-	-
Control 78.52	± 0.46	77.40 ±	0.46	78.73 ± 0.41	77.83 ±	0.41
Trial 77.92 group,(0.5kg/ton)	± 0.42	77.09 ±	0.64	78.18 ± 0.47	77.68 ±	0.67
Significance (P-value)	0.34	0.70	-	0.40	0.85	-
Shell Thickness (mm) (n=30)	-	-	-	-	-	-
Control 0.32	± 0.004	0.32 ±	0.005	0.36 ± 0.007	0.33 ±	0,005
Trial 0.30 group, (0.5kg/ton)	± 0.005	0.35 ±	0.003	0.32 ± 0.005	0.36 ±	0,004
Significance (P-value)	0.014	0.000	-	0.000	0.000	-
Egg Breaking Strength, (N) (n=30)		-	-	-	-	-
Control 28.42 ± 1.78		29.07 ±	1.34	33.92 ± 1.47	30.41 ±	1.12
Trial 29.60 ± 1.27 group,(0.5kg/ton)		36.00 ±	0.84	33.86 ± 1.19	31.41 ±	3.64
Significance (P-value) 0.589		0.000	-	0.978	0.117	-

Table 2. Effect of the Egg Shelf Life addition on the Egg Yolk Color, Haugh Unit and MDA level

Uludağ University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (May 2019)

Fresh	1st Month of Storage	2nd Month of Storage	3rd Month of Storage
MDA level, (mg MDA/ kg) (n=30)	-	-	-
Control 0.16 ± 0.01	0.51 ± 0.01	0.58 ± 0.02	0.87 ± 0.08
Trial group,(0.5kg/ton) 0.11 ± 0.007	0.49 ± 0.006	0.44 ± 0.015	0.55 ± 0.03
Significance (P-value) 0.000	0.075	0.001	0.000

MDA: Malondialdehyde P< 0.05: indicates statistical significance between the groups.

Haugh Unit	-	-	-	-	-
Control 87.33	± 1.86	73.40 ±	0.86	70.41 ± 0.93	71.02 ± 1.20
Trial 86.71 group,(0.5kg/ton)	± 1.03	77.30 ±	2.51	72.94 ± 0.81	77.49 ± 1.57
Significance (P-value)	0.77	0.75	-	0.045	0.002
Egg Yolk Color (n=30)	-	-	-	-	-
Control 5.70	± 0.085	6.93 ±	0.082	8.36 ± 0.097	7.43 ± 0.092
Trial 8.80 group, (0.5kg/ton)	± 0.10	9.00 ±	0.095	8.96 ± 0.089	9.20 ± 0.074
Significance (P-value)	0.000	0.000	-	0.000	0.000

When the trial results are examined,

1. At the 1st month of storage, a significant effect on the egg breaking strength value of the addition of the additive to the ration which increased the egg breaking strength value during this period. The egg breaking strength value is consistent with the measured shell thickness value during this period.
2. The thick albumen height is high in fresh eggs. It decreases with increasing storage time. The Haugh unit is calculated from this height. The higher is the Haugh unit the fresher is the egg. Addition of ‘Vimar Egg Shelf Life (0.5 kg/ton) to the ration caused a significant effect on the Haugh unit values of the egg samples at the 2nd and 3rd months of storage, causing statistically significant increases in this group of eggs.
3. The egg yolk color, which is one of the internal quality parameters of eggs, was significantly affected by the addition of ‘Vimar Egg Shelf Life’ (0.5 kg/ton) to the ration, causing a significant increase in these trial groups. It improved the egg yolk color in fresh eggs and during the storage period.
4. When the mean MDA values of fresh eggs and of those at the 1st , 2nd and 3rd months of storage are examined, statistically significant differences are observed between the control and trial groups. At the 1st month of storage, while no significant difference is observed between the groups, the MDA level of the trial group is lower than that of the control group. As is known, TBA analysis is a measurement test for antioxidant activity and an indicator of MDA, an oxidation product. The higher is the MDA level, the greater is the extent of oxidation. In conclusion, it was determined that the additive slowed the oxidation mechanism since the groups of which diets were supplemented with the addition of ‘Vimar Egg Shelf Life’ (0.5 kg/ton) had significantly lower egg MDA levels than the control group and this effect continued throughout the storage period (+4oC).

CONCLUSION

Addition of ‘Vimar Egg Shelf Life’ (0.5 kg/ton) to layer rations was proven to cause significant improvement in the Haugh unit, egg yolk color and egg MDA values without adverse effects on the performance parameters.