American Agriculturist, March 22, 1924 
How Eggs Are Stored 
Jn A. A. Radio Talk Broadcast from WEAF 
By C. C. SHAFER 
311 
'HE preservation of 
1 eggs is, perhaps, our 
greatest economic food problem for in 
addition to being one of the most valuable 
crops we raise, the egg crop is also both the 
most fragile and most liable to contamination 
and decay. 
Reduced to dollars and cents, the egg crop 
of the United States last year was approxi¬ 
mately one billion dollars and I noticed a pub¬ 
lished statement by one of the largest dairy 
houses in the New York district, that the an¬ 
nual loss in eggs was in'excess of one hundred 
and fifty million of dollars. This only means 
ope thing:—the man who produces 6 ggs is not 
enjoying the full value of his crop and ulti¬ 
mately the consumer is paying more for eggs 
than he would if proper methods of preserva¬ 
tion had been employed. 
It is safe to say that every inhabitant of the 
United States eats one egg a day. Therefore, 
the subject of egg preservation is not only vital 
to the producer, the shipper and the dealer but 
enjoys a place in every consumer’s thought 
and any system which would tend to save a 
portion of this vast loss, should be readily 
received by each. 
Early Storage Methods 
The domestic hen is originally a product of 
China and of course, the Chinese realizing that 
eggs were good to eat, were perhaps the first 
to attempt methods of preservation. They 
found by packing the egg and coating it with 
vegetable oil, wrapping it in corn husks and 
burying it in the ground, they could keep an 
egg for a long period of time. However, in this 
system of preservation the entire content of 
the egg was discolored to such an extent that 
perhaps you and I would be afraid to eat it. 
Then, we come down through the different 
steps in preservation to the European method of 
pickling eggs in salt brine, of packing them in 
bran and oats, of rubbing them with sweet 
butter, coating them with plaster of paris and 
various other substances. 
Then, we advanced further and we had what 
is termed liming or water-glassing of eggs. 
All these systems took care of a small amount 
of eggs for home consumption. 
The Coming of Cold Storage 
There really w’as no advance made toward 
the preservation of eggs on a commercial scale 
until the advent of the modern cold storage 
house with their maintained temperature 
slightly below’ the freezing point and the in¬ 
troduction of humidity. We were introduced 
to what is termed the cold storage egg and it 
really marked the firSt great step toward egg 
preservation and it has been, until recently, 
the most satisfactory. Cold storage of eggs 
has its short comings for the following reasons: 
First, an egg is practically the embryo of the 
little chick and when it is laid, if it is kept at 
any temperature above 70 degrees Fahrenheit 
and is fertile, it will start to incubate. Second, 
if it is an infertile egg and the temperature is 
less, it starts to decay. There is no happy medi¬ 
um and the cause of decay exists within the 
egg itself, for like any other embryo of flesh 
it will decompose. 
No egg ever placed in cold storage can ever 
come out in exactly the same condition as it 
went in, unless there are further methods taken 
to eliminate this decay than merely placing 
them in the storage room, for the shell of an 
egg is porous. 
In order that there ever be life come out of 
that shell, it is necessary oxygen should enter 
and nourish the young chick. It is those same 
pores that allow the oxygen to get in which 
nourishes the germs and promotes decay. 
Eggs which go into storage will all show some 
shrinkage upon being taken out. Also, if the 
quality of the egg was not top notch when it 
went in, the condition of decomposition will 
take place a great deal faster than in a very 
hue quality egg. 
The Cause of Mouldy Odor 
. Mould is very prevalent in storage eggs, for —-— —-— - — ——... 
the fact that in order to prevent as much strictly fresh egg are available, using them, 
evaporation as possible, the warehouseman If these eggs can be fed to the sick in our 
>paust keep the humidity of his room so that hospitals and answer all the intent and pur- 
Jhere is a great deal more moisture in the air poses of a strictly fresh egg, then it is time that 
than in the ordinary atmosphere. This excess all of us became cognizant of the fact and adopt 
moisture on the other hand, is to a great extent, the processed egg for use during the fall and 
absorbed by the straw' board flats and fillers winter months. 
which are used in the case in which eggs are There is nothing which will tend to equalize 
Packed and as straw board gives off odors and the price of eggs the year round any more than 
becomes musty, of course, the egg absorbs the universal demand for processed eggs, and 
tllese - from all indications this is surely coming. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST radio 
talks are broadcast every Wednesday 
evening at 7.50. 
of us. to enjoy good eggs 
practically the whole year 
round. The processing of eggs is no fantastic 
dream and like everything else that really 
amounts to anything, is extremely simple and 
easy to understand. 
Sterilization Stops Decay 
The most positive w'ay of destroying decay 
is to sterilize. W e all know that pasteurizing 
or sterilizing of milk has prevented a great 
deal of loss, but how to sterilize eggs is another 
problem, although i( could be done in several 
ways. 
It can be done by dipping the egg into hot 
boiling water, but in a short time you have a 
partially cooked egg and you know if a dealer 
sold you a partially cooked egg you would 
undoubtedly take it back and register quite a 
kick. 
On the other hand there isn't one of you who 
ever saw a hard boiled egg go rotten. Proof 
positive that if we could sterilize eggs we could 
keep them almost* indefinitely. 
In man’s quest for some system by which he 
could sterilize eggs, it was found that oil 
heated to a temperature in excess of 200 
degrees Fahrenheit, would not coagulate the 
contents of an egg nearly as quickly as what 
water did, therefore, experiments were carried 
on with oil and today the oil, gum and wax 
processed egg has taken its place among the 
users second only to that of the new laid egg. 
How Eggs are “ Processed” 
The processing of eggs to preserve them con¬ 
sists in dipping them for approximately ten 
seconds in a hot bath of the processing solu¬ 
tion, after which they are placed in storage. 
The hot processing bath raises the temperature 
of the egg and-expands its contents enough to 
exhaust most of the oxygen in the air chamber. 
In other words, sterilizes the outer shell and 
the membrane w hich is in close proximity and 
as the content is expanded, the oxygen which 
has gathered in the air chamber is either con¬ 
sumed by the intense heat or forced out through 
the pores of the shell. Upon being taken from 
the bath, the outside of the shell cooling first, a 
portion of free flowing oil gum and waxes fill 
up the pores of the shell with an air tight film 
that leaves a vacuum in the air cell and pre¬ 
vents evaporation and contamination by 
foreign substances or odors entering through 
this perfect hermetic sealing. 
The slight coagulation of the inner membrane 
also tends to toughen this part of the egg, 
giving added protection to the contents. 
Thus protected, processed eggs, when re¬ 
moved from cold storage, show much less 
shrinkage than unprocessed eggs, retain their 
new laid sweetness, opaqueness of white and 
firmness of yolk fat, remarkably well, and so 
far as food value, flavor or table quality are 
concerned, can be distinguished from fresh 
eggs only with difficulty. Those who have 
given much attention to the process have 
generally become enthusiastic about it, and 
many predictions have been made that within 
the near future all eggs would be processed, to 
ensure their getting to the consumer in better 
condition. 
Processing Not Expensive 
If this was an expensive system, it might be 
of little value, but as the cost of processing eggs 
is very small, it enters vitally into the eco¬ 
nomic problems of our day. 
The total cost of processing will be between 
one and three quarter and two cents per dozen, 
varying according to the amount which has to 
be paid for labor in a particular district. 
Processed eggs when offered for sale have 
always brought a premium over ordinary cold 
storage variety for the reason that they are of 
much better quality and do not have the 
ordinary cold storage losses. They can readily 
be used in competition with the fresh egg. In 
fact, a number of hospitals, institutions, large 
hosteleries and asylums are now feeding them 
to their patients practically from August 1 st to 
March 1 st and the other few months when 
While cold storage has made it possible for 
to receive a good quality egg, the combina- 
'?*? of the latest advance known as processing, 
W| th cold storage', now makes it possible for all 
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