Organoleptic properties and shelf-lives of differently dried fowl eggs

Poultry eggs are perishable, hence could lose their quality rapidly between storage and consumption. Maintaining fresh quality is a major problem which is aggravated by temperature, humidity, storage method and time. Several methods of altering these environmental conditions to prolong the shelf-life of the eggs have been reported, yet little is known about kiln, solar and oven methods of drying boiled fowl eggs. This study was targeted at creating awareness, evaluating the organoleptic properties and determining the shelf-life of kiln-, solar- and oven-dried fowl eggs, stored under different environmental conditions. A total of 160 Isa brown freshly laid eggs were obtained and weighed, and were divided into four different groups of 40 eggs each, designated as control, kiln-, solar- and oven-dried. The eggs were boiled for 30 minutes and dried at 100 – 120oC overnight (kiln dried), 45 – 50oC for 5 days (solar dried) and 100oC for 24 hours (oven dried), but those in the control group were not dried. Panelists were used in obtaining information on awareness of fowl eggs drying/drying methods and organoleptic evaluation. Twenty-seven eggs each from the control, kiln-, solar- and oven-dried groups were kept in locally fabricated egg packs and stored for 30 days in a sales outlet, deep freezer and kitchen for shelf-life determination. Results showed that egg weight loss was highest (52.3%) in the kiln-dried, followed by oven-dried (38.9%), solar-dried (27.4%) and control (20.6%) groups. All the panelists (100%) were aware of the different forms of storing boiled fowl eggs and have eaten fowl eggs in different forms, but none (0.0%) was aware of kiln, solar and oven method of drying fowl eggs, or has eaten kiln-, solar- and oven-dried fowl eggs before then. Some of the panelists liked the appearance, taste, aroma, mouth feel, after-taste and overall acceptability of the dried eggs. All (100%) of the eggs in the sales outlet spoilt, but none (0.0%) among the dried eggs stored in the deep freezer was spoilt. In the kitchen, all the control eggs (100%), 22.2% (kiln dried), 88.9% (solar dried) and 66.7% (oven dried) spoilt. Kiln- and oven-dried eggs had more water loss, apparently implying better effectiveness of the drying methods. Therefore, fowl eggs could be boiled, dried and refrigerated to elongate their shelf-lives.