How to make use of discarded eggshell membrane? Getting every last bit of value from an egg
Original title: How to "get every last bit of value" from an egg
Poultry egg industry (network image)
China is the world's largest producer of poultry eggs, but constrained by factors such as the level of technology, the degree of industrialization of the poultry egg sector, and residents' consumption habits, China's egg processing rate still lags considerably behind that of developed countries. With the adjustment of the poultry egg consumption structure and the improvement of the scale and industrialization level of poultry egg production, the market prospects for various types of processed poultry egg products are broad, and technological innovation will also help rediscover the multiple functions and multiple values of poultry eggs.
Poultry eggs are one of the important foods in the daily diet, and are also one of the few foods not restricted by country, region, ethnicity, religious belief or season. Apart from being eaten fresh, what products can poultry eggs be processed into? What value do discarded eggshells have? How much benefit can deeply processed eggs generate?
A poultry egg is a treasure from shell to yolk, with rich and diverse processing categories
Poultry eggs contain relatively high protein and rich important nutrients such as phospholipids, sterols and vitamins, making them an indispensable nutritional food.
While retaining nutrition, poultry egg processing also provides convenient and diverse ways of eating and uncovers more value beyond food. Ma Meihu, a professor at Huazhong Agricultural University and a position scientist in the National Layer Industry Technology System who has long been engaged in poultry egg processing, explained: "Poultry egg processing can be divided into primary processing at the place of origin and deep processing. Clean eggs are products of the primary processing stage, while egg powder and its functional egg powder, convenience egg products, and functional components within eggs are deep-processed products."
"In a broad sense, poultry egg processing means giving ordinary poultry eggs commercial attributes, allowing them to be exchanged as commodities and possess higher value; in a narrow sense, poultry egg processing means changing the original form of poultry eggs and fully tapping their value." Yang Ning, chief scientist of the National Layer Industry Technology System and a professor at China Agricultural University, offered a more accessible understanding.
Divided by processed poultry egg products, China's poultry egg processing products can currently be divided into two major categories with more than 60 varieties in total. The first major category is traditional egg products, mainly including preserved eggs, salted eggs, braised eggs, etc.; the second major category is new-type egg products, mainly including liquid eggs, clean eggs, special-purpose egg powder, egg beverages, etc.
"For poultry egg processing, people used to basically understand it as making fresh poultry eggs into salted eggs and braised eggs. Today's poultry egg processing includes not only these old techniques, but also making full use of discarded eggshells and egg membrane, and through technological innovation turning them into new products such as lysozyme, immunoglobulin, lecithin, eggshell-derived bio-organic calcium, and shell membrane protein polypeptides, achieving deep processing. This also fully proves that a poultry egg is a treasure from shell to yolk," said Ma Meihu.
The poultry egg processing ratio has risen to 9%, yet multiple factors still constrain development
According to National Bureau of Statistics data, by the end of 2015, China's total poultry egg output was 29.99 million tons, making it the world's largest egg-producing country. Correspondingly, China's poultry egg processing volume accounted for only 9%.
This 9%, compared with 1% 20 years ago, represents a relatively large increase, showing that China's poultry egg processing industry has developed rapidly. But compared with the 30%-40% poultry egg processing volume of developed countries in Europe and America, there is still no small gap.
Yang Ning believes that the relatively slow development of China's poultry egg processing industry is constrained by three factors. First, for a long time China's poultry egg consumption has followed the model of direct consumption after production, unlike Europe and America, where eggs are mostly separated into liquid or used for baking cakes and biscuits; second, the current degree of market standardization is insufficient, and many enterprises lack brand awareness; third, downstream food processing enterprises are sensitive to cost, and although some foreign equipment has been introduced, insufficient operation has affected the industry's development.
It is understood that at present China's degree of concentrated egg production and level of industrialization development are relatively low, and there are almost no egg processing enterprises with more than 2 billion yuan in scale. In addition, many of China's egg processing enterprises have a low degree of mechanization and low production efficiency, with serious breakage during processing.
In fact, low investment in science and technology has also become a factor constraining industrial development. Since the "Tenth Five-Year Plan" period, China has invested a large amount of scientific research and tackling funds in agricultural product industries such as grain, meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables, while investment in research and development of egg processing technology has been very small.
Science and technology support the processing industry; one poultry egg can increase efficiency by at least 3 times
Shendi Agricultural Biology Co., Ltd., located in Wuhan, Hubei, is a well-known egg processing enterprise in China. In addition to selling fresh eggs, through long-term cooperation with the National Layer Industry Technology System, it is trying to "get every last bit of value" from a single egg. "After an egg is eaten, what to do with the discarded eggshell? What about the egg membrane? Now, we have produced related series of products." Chairman Yang Yan told reporters that the company has made progress in lysozyme series products, eggshell organic calcium, shell membrane protein polypeptides, liquid eggs, functional egg powder and other aspects.
In addition to providing consumers with safe, nutritious and delicious eggs, Yang Yan said the company will also use deep processing technology to separate egg white and yolk, and use intensive processing to get every last bit of value from eggshells and egg white. "Now, the value of one of our eggs has increased by 3-5 times compared with before."
"Liquid eggs, clean eggs, special-purpose egg powder and the like did not exist in China before. Through technology introduction, digestion, absorption and re-innovation, many key technologies are being localized. It can be said that technological innovation over the past 20 years has supported the entire poultry egg industry, and processed egg products have also begun to benefit humanity in fields such as medicine and biology." Ma Meihu said with emotion, "The processing technology of eggs determines the final value of eggs."
Thanks to joint research and development by China's universities, research institutions and enterprises, China's egg product processing industry has made considerable progress in new processing theories, new technologies, new techniques, new equipment, new methods, new products and standardization, and the new-type egg processing industry is also rising rapidly, with the industry scale now reaching 10-12 billion yuan. Egg processing enterprises like Shendi Agriculture are becoming more and more numerous.
Demand for processed poultry egg products continues to grow, with broad market prospects in the future
Supported by new processing technologies, China has now become a country with a relatively rich variety of egg products in the world. Experts believe that as a major consumer of poultry eggs, the consumer market for egg products has broad prospects and a promising future.
According to the analysis in the "Research Report on Key Industries of China's Agricultural Product Processing Industry (2015)", although about 85% of poultry eggs are still circulated and sold as fresh shell eggs, with the enhancement of people's awareness of safe consumption, the production and consumption of primary-processed clean eggs is growing rapidly. As for traditional egg products, China has begun to gradually adopt modern production methods and technologies, the production scale is continuously expanding, edible consumption is growing rapidly, the industry scale has reached 28-30 billion yuan, and exports to other countries are also growing; in particular, preserved duck eggs and the like are growing rapidly. In addition, driven by new technologies and market demand, special-purpose egg powder, egg beverages and egg seasonings all have very broad market prospects.
Regarding the future poultry egg processing market, Ma Meihu is optimistic: "Now, we have at least 12 enterprises receiving our matching services. People cannot do without poultry eggs and their products, and the future poultry egg processing industry will be safer and healthier."
"The poultry egg processing industry is a sunrise industry and also a highly competitive industry. With the development of science and technology, changes in people's consumption concepts and the follow-up of the food processing industry, in the future, China's poultry egg processing ratio will rise from 9% at the end of the 'Twelfth Five-Year Plan' period to 13%-14% by the end of the 'Thirteenth Five-Year Plan' period; the scale of the egg processing industry will become larger and larger, and industrial concentration will also continuously increase." Yang Ning stated that poultry egg processing will move toward specialization and scale in processing, systematization and automation in equipment, cleanliness and greenness in processes, safety and healthiness in products, and systematization and standardization in management. In the future, the value of poultry eggs will be fully developed, and deeply processed poultry egg products will permeate every aspect of our lives. (Reporter Wu Pei)