SHELL EGG ALBUMEN HEIGHT ASSESSMENT BY FT-NIR SPECTROSCOPY

Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy was used for quantitative measurements of thick albumen height. By means of a fiber optic probe in direct contact with the shell, non-destructive acquisitions by diffuse reflectance were carried out to establish a model to predict this egg quality index. After breaking the egg and measuring the reference parameter albumen height, transmission acquisitions of the thick portion of the albumen were also performed. The predictive models obtained from the two experiments showed a good correlation in terms of coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.819 for non-destructive analysis, and R2 = 0.764 for transmission measurements) between the spectral data and the thick albumen height. In both cases, about 80% of the eggs that were not used for model development were predicted with a maximum error of ±1 mm.