The collection and eggs transport are fundamental stages in laying hen poultry. It is important to know these fundamental stage in order to maintain production parameters and animal welfare ensuring food safety.

The chicken egg: importance and hygiene

Eggs are one of the most consumed foods of animal origin worldwide. It is the nutritional base of millions of families in many countries. For this reason, poultry production systems must guarantee the transport of eggs until the egg reaches the people’s dining room and is completely safe. But what does it mean? PAHO (Pan-American Health Organization) defines, in its glossary of terms, safe food as follows:

Safe food: “it is the guarantee that food will not cause harm to the consumer when it is prepared or ingested according to its intended use.”

In addition to that, the importance of the term Alimentarius Codex, so used in the food industry, must be known, since it is the one that precisely defines the safety of food. In simple terms, the Alimentarius Codex is a set of recommendations and good practices, which covers all the processes of food production to guarantee its quality and safety; it is voluntary and not mandatory. Therefore, countries adopt it as a guide in formulating their food laws.

Animal production has invested great efforts in optimizing its procedures to turn farms into efficient feed production systems. This has allowed the poultry industry to ensure a good nutritional quality of its products, at the same time that it guarantees the safety and security of them. Two important stages in the laying hen industry are the collection AND transport OF EGGS.

Egg collection: what should we know?

In laying hen farms is necessary to study, implement and know what mechanisms are going to be used to collect the eggs laid by the hens. Economic, geographical and technical factors are involved there.

There may be two main mechanisms for collecting chicken eggs:

• AUTOMATIC COLLECTION: these are systems that use an automatic tray (which employs a mechanical system powered by energy) which collects the egg that has rolled to the front of the cage, and moves it to a collection point for identification, classification and packaging. Its proper functioning should be constantly checked, and periodic maintenance must be carried out.
• MANUAL COLLECTION: it is the system where the farm operators collect the egg from the grid (in the cage system) or from the laying cubicles (in the floor systems, also called nests).

At a general level, some standards are advised to always follow in the egg collection process.

Some of the most important are the following:

1. Collect the eggs after feeding the hens to avoid stress during their feeding and not to interfere with this stage.
2. Make a complete collection every 2 hours approximately, to avoid damage to the shell or integrity of the egg.
3. Use new cardboard trays and never from another farm, to avoid the entry of infectious agents.
4. Place the eggs with the flattened side up and the sharper side down: this will protect the air chamber of the egg ensuring a longer shelf life.
5. Classify the eggs by their size according to the current regulations of each country (Example: Colombia uses the ICONTEC standard).
6. Never use dirty or broken eggs for human consumption.
7. Change the litter material of the posture places; never reuse material from the shed floor.
8. Clean and disinfect egg collection containers or replace them with new ones when possible.
9. Staff should wash and disinfect their hands before manually collecting eggs.

Once these recommendations are done, the egg will go to the collection point or warehouse, where it is classified and stored under stable and optimal conditions.

About storage, it is important to consider:

1. Avoid placing the egg containers directly on the floor or against the walls: they should be placed on wooden pallets or other material that ensures their distance from the floor.
2. Carry out animal control: no type of animals (birds, rodents, cats, dogs) must enter the egg storage place as they will put the safety of the eggs at risk.
3. Favorable conditions: the place must be dry, free of humidity and other environmental factors that can harm the quality of the eggs.
4. Carry out periodic washing and disinfection of the egg storage room.

Egg transport and its characteristics

Now, we must bear in mind that an important step, in addition to the collection, is the eggs transport. It is highly recommended that the time elapsed between egg-laying and transport must be as short as possible. Reducing the times in each of these stages favors the hygiene of the egg since it reduces the probability that the egg will be contaminated or suffer damage that affects its safety.

Therefore, here we list some of the most important recommendations for the correct transport of chicken eggs:

1. Avoid the entry of external infectious agents through vehicles or external personnel to the farm: keep entry and exit records, carry out complete disinfection of vehicles, utensils, and staff.
2. Carry out periodic cleaning and disinfection inside the vehicles used to transport eggs to avoid contamination of these during the trip.
3. Qualify the personnel who carry out the transport of eggs in measures of good hygiene and food handling practices, to avoid the loss of safety of the eggs due to improper handling.
4. Minimize any risk of egg breakage, including environmental, human, or mechanical factors: this will prevent the entry of microorganisms into the egg.
5. Ensure that the load of eggs is secured correctly inside the transport truck, to avoid accidents that could damage the eggs.

Conclusions

Chicken eggs are one of the most important food sources globally. Therefore, optimizing all its production stages allows higher yields and lower costs, as well as ensures food safety. Part of those important stages are the collection and transport of the egg. It is important to be trained in these and other phases of the egg production cycle to ensure good efficiency, high quality, and safety.

Currently recommended egg loading and transport systems

With Gi-Ovo’s EggsCargoSystem^® (ECS). you will have stackable plastic trays with dividers every six trays. The loaders and depalletizers place the trays on the pallets or are automatically unstacked by full pallets.

The advantages of the EggsCargoSystem^® are:

• Efficient handling
  • The plastic packaging is extremely stable.
  • Full pallets can be stacked higher than usual systems.
  • The dividers facilitate the stacking of the trays easily and conveniently.
  • Full pallets can be loaded, unloaded and moved more quickly.
  • The system eliminates costly labor to stack and unstack pallets, making a logistics process more flexible, more efficient and more reliable.
• Better use of space
  • The transport capacity is used to the maximum, while the storage and return transport use a minimum of space.

• Loss reduction
  • The choice of material and the ingenious design give the trays maximum load capacity.
  • ECS trays offer the eggs better protection than conventional ones.
  • Loss due to breakage and damage during transport are kept to a minimum.
• Improved hygiene
  • The plastic trays can be completely disinfected, and any source of infection is eliminated.

EggsCargoSystem^® represents today the most reliable and complete system available in the world for the correct and efficient handling of eggs for consumption.