Qualidade de ovos de codornas comercializados in natura na cidade de Pelotas e o efeito da pigmentação da casca sobre o tempo de armazenamento.

Abstract

The quail’s egg is rich in nutrients, a source of vitamins and proteins and its trade-in usually happens through the supermarket networks without the use of refrigeration. On the other hand, the eggshell protects the albumen and the yolk and, according to the genetics of birds, it may affect the percentage of dark spots in the shell. There are evidences not yet proven about the influence of the pigmentation of the shell of the eggs on their quality during the storage period. In order to describe the quality of eggs sold in the municipality of Pelotas and to prove the hypothesis that the pigmentation of the shell has influences on their shelf time this study was conducted in two stages: 1 st ) the sampling of quail’s eggs that were being sold in supermarkets of Pelotas, RS, Brazil; 2 nd ) the influence of eggshell’s pigmentation in the eggs conservation time by the three following factors: 1) negative control, without extraction of the eggshell’s pigmentation, 2) positive control, with a rapid immersion of the eggs in acetic acid solution not removing shell pigmentation, and 3) extraction of the shell’s pigmentation of eggs immersed in acetic acid solution. All factors were evaluated at 0, 10, 15, 21 and 25 days of storage. In order to assess the association of the pigmentation with the quality of the stored eggs three eggshell’s pigmentation classification methods were also compared: scoring method, “Digital Area Determiner” of pigments and the weighing of pigments in filter paper method. In the first stage, the quality variables were analyzed by descriptive statistics and by unifactorial ANOVA. In the second stage, the linear regression analysis was used to dete rmine the effect of the eggs’ pigmentation and of the storage time as well as the interaction between these factors. Pearson's method was also used to check the correlation between the three methods that were used to quantify the pigmentation. In the evaluated period, the results of the study showed that there is a supply of quails’ eggs in the supermarkets of Pelotas qualified only as regular. It was shown that the quality of the eggs due to storage time was reduced, but with no significant association with the degree of the shell pigmentation.