Happy World Egg Day 2021 – Friday 8th October (Picture 1). The theme for this year’s event is “Eggs for all: Nature’s Perfect Package”. As the theme rightly suggests, eggs truly are nature’s perfect package. From babies to adults, eggs have been a source of nutrition for all. The theme will highlight the importance of including an egg in our daily diet either for building muscles or as an essential source of nutrients in our bodies. International egg commission (IEC) Vienna 1996 conference has declared to celebrate World Egg Day every year on the second Friday of October month. World Egg Day is celebrated around the globe to promote egg consumption through augmenting awareness about eggs and special emphasis towards their nutritional importance. Eggs represent a “complete food” required for wellbeing and are recognized by consumers as versatile and wholesome with a balance of essential nutrients to sustain both life and growth. Its availability and low cost make it easily affordable. In short, eggs are an inexpensive and low-calorie source of high-quality protein and other nutrients beneficial to human health.
“Eggcellant day”, “Sunday ho ya monday roz khao ande” and “No better way to start a day” and many slogans were came to raise awareness. Several campaign has been seen to celebrate World Egg Day 2021, like organized some webinars, quizzes, painting skill on egg, exploring new egg dish and distribution of egg etc. Eggitarian, people made their own food habit i.e. other than vegetarian and non-vegetarian, this shows power of egg in our food. National egg coordination committee (NECC) said egg is “The tastiest multivitamin capsule in the world” other also gave complemented such as” Natures super food”, “Nature’s vitamin pill”
In India poultry sector has emerged as one of the fast growing and most organized segments among various livestock sectors due to its transformation from traditional backyard rearing to organized or commercial farming over the last few decades. The poultry industry includes broiler industry and layer industry. The major egg-producing countries are China, US, India, Japan, and Mexico. In a little while egg production in India crosses 100 billion annually and currently having third position in egg production and fifth position in broilers in the world. According to Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics (BAHS), total egg production in the year 2018-2019 is 103.32 billons and per capita availability of egg is 79 eggs per annum. ICMR recommended per capita 180 eggs consumption per annum. Therefore it is needed to bridge the gap between per capita availability and council recommendation of egg. In India leading states in egg production are Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana that contributes more than 50% of total egg production of country.
Nutritional importance of egg
Eggs became a popular source of food that still provides a major source of essential nutrients in daily diets. It is a complete food (Picture 2) containing body building proteins, bone forming minerals, health giving vitamins and energy giving fats. Therefore eggs play an important role and are recommended as part of a healthy diet. Eggs are a rich source of protein that is of a high biological value. The protein quality of the egg is often the standard for measuring the quality of all other food proteins. It is a complete protein consists of all the essential amino acid. Egg protein is also called “Most sustainable animal protein”. Egg also consists of higher unsaturated fatty acid (oleic acid) and also contains essential fatty acid (linoleic acid), and omega 3 fatty acid. Eggs are good source of cholesterol also. In micronutrients, egg contains most of vitamins and minerals. Vitamins include vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, folate, vitamin B12, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin K whereas minerals include calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium, magnesium, selenium and zinc. Eggs are potent source of vitamin D, choline and selenium but it is low in calcium and devoid of vitamin C.
Egg is incredibly nutritious commodity for people of all ages and at different stages of life. Egg may play essential role where there is risk of low-nutrient intakes especially malnutrition because of low price and its ease of availability. Eggs are versatile, delicious and can be consumed in different forms widely. Eggs are amazingly healthful that support positively to muscle, bone, heart, brain, weight loss, vision etc. World egg day is celebrated worldwide to promote egg consumption and make awareness about its nutritional impact on health through busting the myth. This will lead to more consumption and production of egg as well as enhancement of healthiness of whole population.
Value added egg products
The term egg products refer to processed and convenience forms of eggs for commercial, food service, and home use. These products can be classified as dried, frozen, refrigerated liquid, and specialty products. Egg products are widely used as ingredients in many food products because they provide certain desirable functional attributes. Eggs are processed into various egg products (i.e. liquid, frozen, and dried egg products) for uses in the food service industry or as ingredients in various food applications. Examples of other egg products include hard-cooked chopped eggs, precooked scrambled eggs or omelets, quiches, precooked egg patties, scrambled egg mixes, and crepes (Froning, 2008).
Value added egg products (Fig 2) are products that have been modified or enhanced to have a higher market value and/or a longer shelf life. The presence of many bioactive components in eggs opens new windows for value-added processing of eggs (Hatta et al., 2008). Reasons for developing value-added egg products
- Increase sales by creating product diversity.
- Stabilize income by allowing income creation during off-seasons.
- Increase the profitability.
- Make use of excess production
Egg loaf
Egg loaf can be one such product, which could be used as a sandwich breakfast food. It can be easily sliced and used as ready-to-eat or fry-and-eat snack food. Egg loaf can be another product, which can improve marketability of eggs and economics of egg processing plants.
Raw materials: Eggs, Curry stuffs and Spices.
Process: Liquid egg ® Homogenization ® Addition of loaf mixture ® Steaming ® Cooking ® Slicing the loaf ® Packing
Egg roll
The term egg roll is commonly used in North America to refer to variations of fried foods involving filling wrapped in flat bread. It is a nutritious, tasty and convenient egg product suitable for meals or as snack foods. This product offers a potential market at growing fast food outlets. Egg roll filled with 80% scrambled egg and 20% chicken meat mixture (shallow pan fried) was rated best in flavour, texture and overall acceptability. Egg roll had a refrigerated shelf-life of 8 days in vacuum and 6 days in aerobic pack. In West Bengal, and especially Kolkata, egg roll refers to a fried egg wrapped inside a paratha fried flat-bread. After the paratha has been prepared, an egg is cracked on a pan and while the egg is still uncooked, the paratha is added. It is cooked until the egg is well done and is stuck to the paratha. After that, the contents are removed from the pan and sliced raw onions, sliced green chilis, sliced cucumbers, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and black salt is added. This delicacy was specially invented for the Colonial Britishers living in the then Calcutta as a quick snack.
Enrobed Egg
Enrobing/Edible coating is a process in which foods were traditionally coated with edible coating materials in the form of batter to provide the processors an opportunity to prepare value added meat products while preserving and enhancing their quality (Garg and Mendiratta, 2006). ‘Further processed products’ can be prepared by applying edible coating on the products in two distinct steps i.e. battering and breading (Ahamed et al., 2007). Enrobing has multifaceted benefits on processing, sensory and storage quality of the product. In addition, it may act as delivery vehicle for carrying the bioactive compounds required for the improvement of the quality attributes of the product.
Enrobing can be successfully employed to add value to products and to develop a low calorie fried products. Enrobing improves not even the sensory attributes of the products but also the physicochemical, microbiological attributes of the products and therefore, satisfies the consumers’ need in every aspect. In addition, it can be successfully used as a carrier of bioactive compounds. The Production of enrobed products with improved sensory attributes, microbiological qualities may find their entry into global markets and fetch higher returns.
Pickled eggs
Pickled eggs are typically hard boiled eggs that are cured in vinegar or brine. After the eggs are hard boiled, the shell is removed and they are submerged in a solution of vinegar, salt, spices, and other seasonings. A simple, cost-effective and efficient technology developed for pickling of quail eggs for up to 4 months of storage and marketing at ambient temperature in ready-to-eat form.
Salted Eggs
A salted egg is a preserved food product made by soaking eggs in brine or salt solution. Preparation of salted chicken eggs technology is so simple to be used by unskilled people which obviates the need for using salt prior to serving boiled eggs and hence a convenient product for egg vendors.
Albumen Ring
Albumen rings are popularized as egg snacks at growing fast food outlets. It can be prepared by cooking the blended egg albumen in ring molds, battering and breading the coagulated albumen prior to deep fat frying.
Egg Waffle
Egg Waffle is a spherical egg-based waffle which is a nutritious, light, crispy and versatile snack food for the breakfast. This product offers a potential market at growing fast food outlets. Egg Waffles prepared from liquid whole egg with wheat flour and granulated wheat. The batter is poured over the special frying pan and heated; the small ovals of egg waffles are thus formed. The crucial key to prepare a crispy egg waffle is to turn over the pan quickly after the batter is poured into the hot frying pan.
Egg crepe
Egg crepe is a thin, fat, circular product and may be filled with meat or vegetables and rolled or folded. It is an egg-rich product and can be popularized as a convenient egg item at growing fast food outlets and at homes. Crepes has a shelf-life of 22 days in vacuum and 20 days in aerobic packaging at refrigeration (4 ± 1°C) and for 60 days at freezing (-18 ± 1°C) temperature in both vacuum and aerobic packaging.
References
- Ahamed ME, Anjaneyulu ASR, Sathu T, Thomas R and Kondaiah N (2007). Effect of different binders on the quality of enrobed buffalo meat cutlets and their shelf life at refrigeration storage (4 ± 10C). Meat Science, 75: 451–459.
- Froning GN (2008) Egg products industry and future perspectives. In: Mine Y (ed) Egg Bioscience and Biotechnology. New Jersey: John Wiley, pp. 307–325.
- Garg V and Mendiratta SK (2006). Studies on tenderization and preparation of enrobed pork chunks in microwave oven. Meat Science, 74: 718- 726.
- Hatta H, Kapoor M, Juneja LR (2008) Bioactive components in egg yolk. In: Mine Y (ed) Egg Bioscience and Biotechnology. New Jersey: John Wiley, pp. 185–206.
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