|
COOPERATIVE EXTENSIONUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIACALIFORNIA POULTRY LETTEROctober 1998In This Issue:
Rapid Cooling Studies - Effect on Albumen QualityScientists at the University of California have received grant support from the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association to study forced air cooling of table eggs. The basic concept is to cool eggs quickly after processing and packaging to preserve egg quality and prevent growth of microbes in eggs. In previous progress reports we have shown data on the cooling rates which can be achieved with forced air cooling (California Poultry Letter August, 1997). Previously published results have indicated that rapidly cooled eggs developed micro cracks and were more likely to be contaminated when dipped into a culture of SE (Fajardo, T.A., Anatheswaran, R.C. and Puri, 1996, Effect of cooling on crack development and mechanical behavior of eggshells, Applied Engineering in Ag. 12(1):49-55.). We have previously reported (1998 UC Egg Processing Workshop Proceedings) that rapid cooling did not affect egg shell strength. Our results also showed that rapidly cooled eggs were not more likely to be SE positive than slow cooled eggs when both were dipped into an SE culture containing 108 CFU/ml with eggs and culture at the same temperature. Our studies differed from those of Fajardo et al. in that we used previously washed eggs and rapidly cooled them to about 50oF as compared to using unwashed eggs and cooling to a temperature of 32oF in the previous study. We believe that our experiment more closely duplicated the conditions which would be used if eggs were rapidly cooled in a commercial egg processing plant. In a recent test, eggs were packed from an in-line system because higher egg temperatures are expected when in-line eggs are packed. One group of eggs (fast cooled) was placed in fiber flats and wire baskets. The wire baskets were placed in front of the air output from the refrigeration coil and then were cooled from 83oF to 51oF in 1.3 hours. Another group was packed in one dozen pulp cartons and these were packed into corrugated fiber board half cases. Three of these half cases were placed in the center of a pallet and then the pallet was placed into the cooler. These "slow cooled" eggs reached 51oF in 4.6 days. After initial cooling the "rapidly cooled" eggs were placed on the top of the pallet of warm eggs. After one week all six half cases were moved from the refrigerated storage room on the farm to a 40oF storage room at UC Davis. One third of the eggs from each group were then removed and albumen height and egg weight were measured. Additional quality measurements were made after storage for one and two weeks.
Albumen height was significantly improved by rapid cooling after 1, 2 or 3 weeks of egg storage (Table 1). After three weeks storage the number of USDA Grade B eggs based on albumen quality had doubled in the slow cooled group. These results clearly indicate that rapid forced air cooling can slow the decline in interior egg quality. Egg weight loss may have been reduced by rapid cooling (Table 1). When all of the data were combined this difference approached significance (P=.07). It is clear that rapid cooling would improve the albumen quality of eggs reaching the consumer. Previous research has shown that Salmonella organisms do not grow in egg albumen until the yolk membrane integrity and albumen quality begin to deteriorate with storage. Therefore, more rapid cooling should improve egg safety. Based on our findings we feel confident in recommending rapid cooling of packaged eggs to enhance egg safety and quality.
Ralph Ernst, Jim Thompson, Doug Kuney, Hans Riemann, Gideon Zeidler, Sakchai Himathongkham and Jerry Knutson California Egg Quality Assurance Program (CEQAP) Partners Win Vice President's AwardThe partners who developed CEQAP were selected to receive Vice President Al Gore's "Hammer Award" for establishing a program to provide safer eggs for California consumers. The Hammer Award is given to federal employees and their state, local and private sector partners who have advanced the Vice President's National Partnership for Reinventing Government by cutting red tape, improving service to customers, and helping build a better and more cost-effective government. The award consists of a $6 hammer, a ribbon, and a note of appreciation from Vice President Gore, all set in an aluminum frame. Ernie Gemperele, Mark Oldenkamp, Merlyn Garber, Tony Cobarrubia, David Goldenberg and Ann Downs were present to represent the egg industry. The plaque will be displayed at a variety of industry meetings in the future. Awards were also given to representatives from FDA; CDFA; USDA, APHIS and California Department of Health Services.
All industry participants in CEQAP should be proud of their role in making this program a success! CEQAP Subcommittee Meets -- Recommends Sampling Plan A CEQAP subcommittee met on October 8 in Sacramento to develop guidelines for environmental sampling of flocks/ranches. These guidelines will be sent to the CEQAP Advisory Committee for review and consideration. If approved, they will become part of the CEQAP in the future. The official recommendations of the committee will be published later but a few general decisions can be summarized here. The environmental sampling plan would allow sampling of each flock once during its productive life or sampling the farm once each year. Two training sessions will be held in northern California and two in southern California. After the last training session CEQAP participants will have 60 days to modify their quality assurance plans and begin sampling. Veterinarians who have completed the aforementioned training will be approved to provide on-ranch instruction to clients in proper sampling methods. Thus a grower can become certified to collect environmental samples by attending one of the training sessions or by hiring a certified veterinarian to provide training on their ranch. High Mortality From Newcastle Disease in AustraliaAn outbreak of Newcastle disease with high mortality has been reported on two farms in New South Wales Australia. The highly virulent form of Newcastle disease is suspected but has not been confirmed at this time. Neither farm was exporting poultry or egg products and this outbreak is not thought to pose any threat to U.S. producers. Breitmeyer Receives National HonorCalifornia State Veterinarian, Dr. Richard Breitmeyer, has been named recipient of the 1998 National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) Honor Award in the Field of Service. Breitmeyer, who serves as CDFA's Director of Animal and Food Safety Programs, also heads the department's recently formed food safety team. CDFA Secretary Ann Veneman said, "He is a true leader who brings innovative ideas and concepts in addressing animal disease control issues and protecting consumers from food borne illnesses." Breitmeyer has been a key player in the California egg and poultry meat industries' efforts to develop quality assurance programs. California Poultry Industry Federation Service Awards The following individuals were given service awards at the CPIF Convention. They were cited for special assistance with the California Poultry Meat Quality Assurance Program.
U.C. Poultry Websitehttp://etx.ucdavis.edu/avs/avsext.htm If you visit our website you will find the following menu:
Under publications you will be able to read or download 15 poultry fact sheets and the 12 most recent issues of the California Poultry Letter. Information on other poultry subjects is available at the Purdue University Website. You can reach the Purdue site and several other sites from our menu listing "other pages of interest" or access the Purdue page directly from: http://www.ansc.purdue/edu/poultry/. The Purdue site has collected short poultry publications from a variety of universities and they have added a search engine so that you can search for subjects using key words. This is a convenient source of reliable poultry information on a variety of subjects. Most of the new poultry publications available from UC are in the form of "Fact Sheets." These are short publications on specific subjects which are never printed in quantity. They are copied in extension offices as needed. This allows us to update these at any time without wasting large quantities of paper. The following titles are available at this time. Those in bold face are also available on the UC Webpage "http://etx.ucdavis.edu/avs/avsext.htm".
If you or your employees engage in the sport of duck or goose hunting you could bring more than just meat home. Wild waterfowl can be infected with avian influenza virus. This virus which usually does not cause any apparent disease in waterfowl, can be spread to domestic poultry. After a duck hunting outing we recommend that you shower and change clothing before returning to work with poultry. Our September newsletter contained an error in Table 1 on page 3. The correction is for average egg weight (grams) for the percent protein treatments. For 14.5% protein treatment the egg weight should have been 58.5 gm(a) and for 17.5% protein the egg weight should have been 58.6 gm(a). These were not significantly different means. Our thanks to Howard Waterhouse for catching this error.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Programs approved for California Quality Assurance Program credit.
Ralph A. Ernst, Poultry Specialist | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||