Application of Chemical Methods to the Determination of Egg Yolk Contamination in Commercial Productions of Egg White Compared to Enzymatic Determination

Methods for lipid extraction and quantification by colorimetric determination of either ester or cholesterol were adapted to the measurement of egg yolk contamination in commercial egg white production. The resulting procedure was compared to enzymatic determination of egg yolk contamination in white. The procedure was applied to 23 productions of an egg processing plant. Contaminations ranged from 0.005 g/100 g to 0.4 g/100 g. Functional performance of the liquid egg white was best for productions with very low contamination. Productions with contaminations higher than 0.1 g/100 g showed substantial decrease of functional performance. There was no negative effect of yolk contamination on the flavour of spray-dried egg white.