312                 Efficiency of Lime and Water Glass for Egg Preservation

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    FIG. 1. Record of temperature and relative humidity in the egg storage room.

the start of the trials were about 65°F. in the winter
and about 96ºF. in the summer. The
albumen index, yolk index and percentage thick
white figures, obtained after one week's storage
at room temperature in the summer test, were
only reached after 5, 13 and 6 weeks respectively
of storage during the winter test. In the summer
test, even among the preserved infertile eggs,
the quality, as measured by albumen index,
yolk index and percentage thick white, after
a fortnight of preservation in lime water, had
deteriorated to the level reached by eggs pre-
served in the same substance during winter only
after 10, 20 and 12 weeks of storage respectively.
In the winter test, the control eggs after eight weeks
of storage had practically no larger air-cells than
the controls stored for two weeks under summer
conditions. While the comparatively low tem-
perature and high humidity prevalent in
the storage room during the first half of the
winter test enabled the maintenance of egg quality
over fairly long periods, the high temperature
and low humidity prevalent during the initial
weeks of the summer experiment had a very
adverse effect on the keeping quality of the
eggs.

From a study of the graphs in Fig. 2 it
will be seen that preservation of eggs in lime
water, lime and salt or water glass was of definite
benefit. While, however, in the more favour-
able conditions of winter, storage in these pre-
servatives might be carried out with advantage
for about 18-20 weeks. in summer the period
was reduced to about 10-11 weeks.

No material difference in the efficiency of these
three preservatives for storing eggs at either period
of the year was observed. There was, however,
a slight advantage in favour of lime water, which
was confined to the slightly higher yolk indices
of the eggs preserved in this material in both
tests. Since lime water is the cheapest of the
three preservatives used and is also the simplest
to prepare and handle, it should normally
be used in preference to the other two preser-
vatives.

The edibility of the control and preserved
eggs was compared by boiling and tasting a
few from each of the groups at the periodical
examinations. In the winter test, equally good
results were obtained with fertile and infertile
eggs. It was noticed that control eggs remained
fairly palatable till about 10-12 weeks, though
at this age they were much below the standard of
fresh, day-old eggs. The preserved ones, however,
only reached the same low stage of palatability
at the end of 20 weeks of storage.

During the summer test, the fertile eggs in
the control group were rejected as inedible,
even at the end of the first week, owing to embryo
development and the infertiles were found to be
only just edible at the end of two weeks. When
preserved, the fertile eggs were found to be very
poor in eating quality at the end of two weeks,
probably on account of embryo development,