Safety and Quality Assessment of Eggs Using Hyperspectral Imaging Technology

Eggs are one of the most important economic and balanced protein source available in daily diet. Shell eggs from healthy chickens are assumed fresh and sterile inside, but numerous microorganisms might be present on the shell. Contamination of eggs and eggshells by microorganisms have been identified as one of the major causes of foodborne disease throughout the world. For the safety and quality concerns, development of a rapid, efficient, and selective technique for detecting microbiological contamination of eggshell surfaces is in urgent need. With the advances in hyperspectral imaging instruments, leading great potential on the application of hyperspectral imaging for nondestructive inspection of microbiological contamination of eggs. This study plans to develop a technique for rapid detection of eggshell surface microbial populations and egg freshness by using hyperspectral imaging. In the first year, a hyperspectral imaging system and its measurement method, and the qualitative data analysis of foodborne pathogens on eggshell surface will be conducted. In the second year, modeling methods of hyperspectral imaging for quantification of microbial populations on eggshell surface and egg freshness will be developed. In the third year, the algorithms and methods for assessing internal microbiological contamination of shell eggs and liquid egg products will be developed. The results obtained from this research can be applied not only to inspection and management of egg, but to rapid and nondestructive detection of many agricultural and food products.