Designer eggs: from improvement of egg composition to functional food

Diet plays an important role in maintaining health. Among the different pro ducts delivering essential nutrients to the body, an egg has arguably a spe cial place, being a rich and balanced source of essential amino and fatty a cids as well some minerals and vitamins. This paper focuses on the benefits to the consumer of improving the nutritional quality of eggs by enhancing levels of anti-oxidants and n-3 fatty acids such as docosahexaenoic acid (D HA). The advantages of simultaneous enrichment of eggs with vitamin E, caro tenoids, selenium and DHA include better stability of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) during egg storage and cooking, high availability of such nut rients as vitamin E and carotenoids, absence of off-taste and an improved a nti-oxidant and n-3 status of people consuming these eggs. Having reviewed the relevant scientific literature it is concluded that "designer eggs" can be considered as a new type of functional food. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.