Egg quality parameters and fatty acid profiles of emu eggs collected from experimental farm of ICAR-CARI, Izatnagar

A study was carried out to evaluate the quality of fresh emu eggs and their acceptability by the consumers. The eggs were collected from institute experimental emu farms and they were analyzed for different physico-chemical and sensory quality parameters. Results indicated that the mean egg weight (gm), shape index, egg shell weight (%), shell thickness (mm), albumen index, yolk index, Roche color yolk score, total albumen (%), thick albumen (%), thin albumen (%), total yolk (%) and air cell diameter (cm) were 561.5±38.51, 68.81±3.47, 13.90±1.56, 1.27±0.14, 0.07±0.01, 0.19±0.02,1.71±0.15, 42.53±3.89, 69.74±4.33, 29.01±1.54,41.65±2.47 and 3.59±0.46, respectively. The moisture contents (%) of thin albumen, thick albumen and yolk were 89.93±2.44, 85.29±1.86 and 46.10±2.18, respectively. The ether extracts (%) and crude protein (%) (thin albumen, thick albumen and yolk) were 0.39±0.05, 1.80±0.14, 35.59±1.72 and 7.62±1.02, 10.69±1.33, 15.72±1.64, respectively. Total ash contents of albumen and yolk were 0.82±0.05 and 1.5±0.11, respectively. The fatty acid profiles indicated that emu eggs were rich in MUFA and PUFA than hen eggs. Sensory evaluation data of boiled and fried eggs indicated that chicken eggs are more preferred than emu eggs in both the cases. Thus, it was concluded that emu eggs had very good physico-chemical and nutritional profiles and are reasonably accepted by the consumers.