Egg albumen cubes and egg yolk cubes and their quality changes during storage

Egg albumen and egg yolk were separately mixed with optimized quantities of wheat semolina, rice flour and
common salt to obtain dough, dough steamed, and cut into 20 mm cubes, fried in sunflower oil, cooked and packed
in metalised polyester bags and stored at ambieπt temperature (27±2°C) for 60 days. Fried egg albumen cubes (EAC)
and egg yolk cubes (EYC) contained 31.5 and 14.5% moisture, 4.5 and 35.0% fat, 9.9 and 8.3% salt and 14.2 and 12.7%
protein, respectively. Freshly prepared EYC had higher (p<0.05) rehydration (176±16.4%) capacity than EAC (121.0±16.2%).
Free fatty acids (FFA), thiobarbituric acid (TBA) values and shear values of both EAC and EYC products increased
significantly (p<0.05) during storage. The shear values were markedly (p<0.05) lower for rehydrated products. There
was no definite trend in changes in Hunter L, a and b values during storage. Standard plate counts and yeast and
moulds were in the narrow range of 1-2 log cfu/g in both EAC and EYC when stored up to 60 days. Sensorily, EAC
were preferred to EYC by the panelists and both products were judged acceptable (score > 6.0 on a 9-point Hedonic
scale) when stored at 27±2°C up to 60 days.