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Duck egg albumen: physicochemical and functional properties as affected by storage and processing

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Abstract

The demand for duck meat and eggs in Asian countries increases every year. Duck egg albumen has become an important ingredient in the food industry alongside its hen counterpart, because of its excellent nutritive and functional properties. The major proteins in duck albumen are ovalbumin, ovomucoid, ovomucin, conalbumin, and lysozyme. Comparing with hen albumen, lower contents of ovalbumin, conalbumin, lysozyme and ovoflavoprotein are found in duck albumen. Nevertheless, duck albumen shows better gelling and foaming properties than hen albumen. During storage, duck albumen gel properties are enhanced, while foam volume and foam stability are decreased. Moreover, the changes in quality indices of duck egg including the thinning of the albumen, an increase in albumen pH, loss of water and carbon dioxide occur as storage time is increased. Some processes such as alkaline treatment also cause the loss in nutritive value of egg albumen. In this review, the composition and functional properties of duck albumen and how they are affected by processing conditions are also addressed, in comparison with hen albumen. A better understanding of duck egg albumen would be beneficial so that the food processing industry can exploit the potential of this avian protein.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Higher Education Research Promotion and a scholarship from the Thailand Education Hub for Southern Region of ASEAN Countries Project Office of the Higher Education Commission.

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  1. Department of Food Technology, Faculty of Agro-Industry, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Songkhla, 90112, Thailand

    Tran Hong Quan & Soottawat Benjakul

  2. Department of Food Technology, Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences, Vinh Long University of Technology Education, Vinh Long, 890000, Vietnam

    Tran Hong Quan

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Quan, T.H., Benjakul, S. Duck egg albumen: physicochemical and functional properties as affected by storage and processing. J Food Sci Technol 56, 1104–1115 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-019-03669-x

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