Effect of hen egg production and protein composition on textural properties of egg albumen gels

The effect of hen age, strain and dietary amino acid intake on the egg albu men gel textural properties was studied in two experiments by textural prof ile analysis (TPA) and uniaxial compression (UC) tests. In experiment 1, eg gs from 4 different hen flocks were heat processed industrially. Egg reject ion due to poor albumen gelling was correlated to hen age (r = 0.502), albu men dry matter (r = -0.632), gel hardness of 1(st) compression (r = -0.765) , and gel work of 1(st) compression (r = -0.740) in TPA. In experiment 2 tw o hen strains, representing two levels of egg production, were fed diets wi th supplementation of L-lysine, methionine or both amino acids compared to a control diet. The lysine intake ranged from 818-1272 mg/hen/day and methi onine intake from 377-575 mg/hen/day among hen groups, but without signific ant effect on the albumen gel texture parameters. ne hen strains differed s ignificantly in egg production (P < 0.001), physical (P < 0.001), chemical (P < 0.05) and gel textural parameters of egg albumen (P < 0.01). Hen age w as essential, and correlated to the industrial egg rejection (r = 0.729), a lbumen dry matter (r = -0.902) and gel stress at fracture (r = -0.884). Alb umen gels with high fracture stress values were found to contain a modified form of ovotransferrin.