Different housing systems cause different quality in storage
A study was carried out in the Czech Republic to assess changes in quality of eggs from conventional, enriched cages and litter systems during the short term (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 days) and long term (0, 7, 14 and 21 days) storage at room temperature.
During short term store storage significant interaction of time and housing was found, mainly in albumen quality expressed by albumen height, Haugh units and albumen pH. Haugh units decreased and albumen pH values increased faster in eggs from conventional cages, followed by eggs from litter and enriched cages.
Egg weight more decreased within the 21-day storage in eggs from conventional cages (about 7.4%) , while the smallest reduction of egg weight was in eggs from litter (about 5.0%). Minor changes occurred in Haugh units in eggs from enriched cages. On the contrary, quality of eggs from litter changed rapidly (reduction of 44.9%).
Source: M. Englmaierova, E. Tumova and V. Chartova, Czech republic
Proceedings of the XIIIth European Poultry Conference, 2010, Tours, France
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