Elsevier Improving the Safety and Quality of Eggs and Egg Products: Volume 1: Egg Chemistry, Production and Consumption (Woodhead Publishing Series in Food Science, Technology and Nutrition)

The 2 volumes review essential research and best practice in the production and processing of eggs with particular emphasis on their safety, nutritional and sensory quality. The opening chapters in Volume 1 set the scene with information on egg production and consumption in various countries. Following chapters introduce aspects of egg formation and chemistry and provide an overview of egg quality. Chapters in parts three and four focus on egg production systems and their influences on egg safety and quality. Key Features: focuses on egg chemistry, production and consumption with reference to the factors than can impact egg quality; reviews recent research in the areas of disease, egg quality and the development of new technologies to assure egg safety; comprehensively covers organic, free-range and processed egg production. Contents: Part 1 Egg production and consumption: Egg and egg product production and consumption in Europe and the rest of the world; Social economic aspects of egg production in China; Egg production in Africa; Profiling the egg consumer: attitudes, perceptions and behaviours; Egg quality assurance schemes and egg traceability. Part 2 Egg formation, chemistry and quality parameters: Egg formation and chemistry; Use of high-throughput technology to identify new egg components; The eggshell: structure and protective function; Molecules involved in chemical defence of the chicken egg; Advances in egg defect detection, quality assessment and automated sorting and grading. Part 3 Egg production and quality: Poultry breeding for egg quality: traditional and modern genetic approaches; Hen nutrition for sustained egg quality; Effect of hen age, moult, laying environment and egg storage on egg quality; Egg and egg product microbiology; Alternative hen housing systems and egg quality; Avian diseases which affect egg production and quality; Parasitism in egg production systems: the role of the red mite (Dermanyssus gallinae); Health risks for workers in egg production systems and methods of control. Part 4 Alternative egg production systems and processed eggs: Environmental sustainability of egg production and processing; Organic and free-range egg production; Production, composition, and quality of duck eggs; Production and quality of quail, pheasant, geese and turkey eggs for uses other than human consumption; Processed egg products.