Abstract
This study was performed to investigate the freshness and nutritive components of eggs from Incheon area. The eggs of 64 brands collected from 7 hypermarkets and 6 brands collected from farms were examined to test the Haugh unit (HU), egg yolk index and specific gravity. HU and specific gravity were higher in farm eggs than in hypermarket eggs (P<0.05), and there was no difference in the egg yolk index. Among hypermarket eggs, HU and egg yolk index were higher in the graded eggs than in non-graded eggs (P<0.05), and specific gravity was not different between them. HU and egg yolk index of the eggs collected in March were higher than those in August (P<0.05). To monitor the bacterial contamination, total coliforms, total bacterial counts (TBC) and Salmonella enteritidis were examined. Salmonella enteritidis and total coliforms were not detected from all eggs. TBC of farm eggs were less than $10^1$ CFU/mL in all samples and TBC of hypermarket eggs were less than $10^1$ CFU/mL in 187 samples, $10^1{\sim}10^2$ CFU/mL in 3 samples and $10^3{\sim}10^4$ CFU/mL in 2 samples, respectively. Antimicrobial residues were not detected from all eggs tested. The vitamin E contents in the vitamin E enriched eggs from 6 brands hypermarket were 1.98~22.96 mg/yolk100 g ($14.04{\pm}8.81$ mg/yolk100g), and those of 5 brands among them were higher than the average of ordinary eggs. In one brand egg, vitamin E content was lower than the average of ordinary eggs. The vitamin E contents of ordinary eggs were 1.75~16.36 mg/yolk100 g (average $5.57{\pm}2.76$ mg/yolk100 g) and there were no price differences between vitamin E enriched eggs and ordinary eggs. In the contents of vitamin E, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and cholesterol, there were no significant differences according to the price. These results suggests that egg production, distribution, and management system should be improved for supplying fresh eggs to consumers at reasonable prices.