Author(s)

Karine Joubrane¹, Dima Mnayer², Tayssir Hamieh^3*, Georges Barbour¹, Rabih Talhouk⁴, Elie Awad^1,5

¹Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Veterinary Medicine, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon.
²Faculty of Sciences, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon.
³Laboratory of Materials, Catalysis, Environment and Analytical Methods (MCEMA), Faculty of Sciences, Doctoral School of Sciences and Technology (EDST), Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon.
⁴Department of Biology, Faculty of Art and Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
⁵Food Safety Lebanese Commission, Beirut, Lebanon.

The quality traits of fresh marketable chicken eggs collected during winter, autumn and summer periods from different local markets in Lebanon were evaluated in order to understand the reproductive fitness of the chicken and the correlation between collection dates. A total of 2000 brown and white eggs were analyzed and compared for their external quality parameters such as egg weight, length, width, size, shell thickness, specific gravity and for their internal quality traits such as Haugh unit, yolk diameter, yolk color, and yolk height. Results show that egg weight and size varied markedly and tended to be smaller during summer period. A significant difference was found between white and brown eggs in some quality traits such as egg weight, shell thickness, egg length, and yolk diameter parameters. Egg quality parameters were significantly reduced during summer season where eggs are exposed to high temperature conditions. For grading analysis, 80% of the total eggs were classified as A with a significant difference (p < 0.05) between white and brown egg and during collection dates. Overall, brown eggs graded better than white eggs in external quality cleanliness and shape. Based on our analysis, the results of this study show that Lebanese eggs are of good quality and suggest that proper egg handling and storage conditions should be applied especially at warm environmental conditions to improve egg quality during summer season.

Brown and White Eggs, Egg Quality Control, Quality Parameters

Joubrane, K. , Mnayer, D. , Hamieh, T. , Barbour, G. , Talhouk, R. and Awad, E. (2019) Evaluation of Quality Parameters of White and Brown Eggs in Lebanon. American Journal of Analytical Chemistry, 10, 488-503. doi: 10.4236/ajac.2019.1010035.