Food Measure

DOI 10.1007/s11694-014-9183-6

ORIGINAL PAPER

Thermophysical and rheological properties of liquid egg white

and yolk during thermal pasteurization of intact eggs
Behzad Abbasnezhad Nasser Hamdami
Mohammad Shahedi Hamed Vatankhah

Received: 3 February 2014 / Accepted: 15 April 2014

Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Abstract Thermophysical properties of eggs was studied

in a temperature range of 560 C, which could be used to
optimize the thermal processing. The effective thermal
conductivity of egg white was predicted by Krischer model
(fk = 0.20), and for egg yolk, parallel model was in good
agreement with the experimental data. Power law and HerschelBulkley models were used to describe rheological
behavior of egg yolk and white, respectively. The differential
scanning calorimeter showed that denaturation of white
protein starts at 60 C. Surface heat transfer coefficient
increased with increasing temperature. Density decreased
during thermal process and was in a good agreement with the
predictive models, based on the chemical component.
Keywords Eggs  Thermophysical properties 
Rheology  Surface heat transfer coefficient  Pasteurization

Introduction
Eggs (Gallus domesticus) are a rich and well-balanced
source of essential nutrients for human diet which contains
high biological value of proteins with an exceptional
functional properties in yolk and white [1]. Low cost and
readily availability in most of the countries are two main
results of wide usage of eggs. Intact eggs have always been
preferred to liquid egg products since they offer some
benefits as an ingredient in recipes [2].

B. Abbasnezhad (&)  N. Hamdami  M. Shahedi 

H. Vatankhah
Department of Food Science and Technology, Isfahan University
of Technology, Isfahan 8415683111, Iran
e-mail: b.abasnezhad@ag.iut.ac.ir

One of increasing concerns about food safety of eggs is

the Microbial contamination, particularly, with pathogenic
bacteria especially Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) [3]. More
than 90 % of SE penetrate the eggshells [4]. As a result, the
researchers working on the egg pasteurization are eager to
provide wholesome table eggs for consumers [3]. Cooking
operation is able to kill some, most, or all the SE in a
serving. Nevertheless, cooking of meals containing eggs is
highly variable, and some meals such as mayonnaise and
ice creams are not heated before consumption [5]. Therefore, the minimum heat required to destroy salmonellae
should be used in pasteurization of egg products. Pasteurization causes no significant changes in nutritive value,
flavor, and color of egg; nevertheless, functional properties
could be seriously altered [6]. Today, the egg industry is an
important part of the world food industry [7]. United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends heat
treatment of egg whites at 57.6 C for 2.5 min, egg yolks at
61.1 C for 2.5 min, and whole eggs at 60 C for 3.5 min
to ensure egg safety against food borne pathogens, existing
in eggs [2, 3, 79]. The common method of pasteurizing
the whole eggs is to immerse eggs in hot water at 60 C for
20 min which could result in overheating of the egg white
and partially cooked eggs [4]. Since thermal treatment is
widely applied in the egg products industry, evaluating the
Thermophysical properties, flow behavior model, and surface heat transfer coefficient would play an important role
in heating operations [10]. This study has the mentioned
thermophysical and rheological characteristics of eggs
during thermal pasteurization according to the USDA
recommendations about temperature and time efficiency.
Density, thermal conductivity, surface heat transfer
coefficient, and flow behavior are major Thermophysical
properties required for evaluating, designing, and modeling
heat transfer processes, such as refrigeration, freezing,

123

B. Abbasnezhad et al.

heating, and drying. In addition, chemical composition and

temperature strongly affects Thermophysical properties of
foods [10]. Therefore, this paper has used experimental and
common chemical composition based predictive models of
Density and thermal conductivity, and also, studied some
other properties like rheological behavior parameters, surface heat transfer coefficient, and specific heat of egg whites
and yolks in an extensive temperature range (460 C).

qs

Materials and methods

Fresh eggs (Grade A, large size, and uniform age), not

older than 3 days after laying, were purchased from a local
market and kept in a refrigerator at 5 C. Before each
analysis, the eggs were kept in the room temperature
(24 C) for 15 min. They were all of Iranian Grade A
eggs with an average weight of 61 2 g, large diameter
6 0.02 cm (Standard deviation was 0.2), small diameter
4.5 0.02 cm (Standard deviation was 0.12) and shell
thickness 0.28 0.04 mm (Standard deviation was 0.04).
After visual inspection, the cracked or irregularly shaped
eggs were discarded. Afterward the eggs were handbroken
and the whites were carefully separated from the yolks.
Chemical analysis
The protein content of the egg white and yolk was determined using Kjeldahl method. Water content of samples
were measured by drying the samples in a vacuum oven
(Fine Tech, model: SSVO-502, South Korea) at 50 C for
48 h [11]. Fat content was determined by Soxhlet extraction according to the method Aa 438 of AOCS [12]. Ash
content of samples were measured by AOAC Official
Methods of Analysis. Typically, samples were held at
500600 C for 24 h in an electric furnace [13].
Density measurement
A Pycnometer (25 ml) was used to measure the density (q)
[6]. Pycnometer, water, and the Egg white and yolks (W)
were weighed using an analytical balance with respect to
uncertainty of 0.0001 g. The samples were allowed to
reach the equilibrium temperature before weighting. The
Pycnometer was previously calibrated by distilled water at
each temperature. The volume of the Pycnometer (Vpy), at
a particular temperature (T C), was calculated using the
following equation:
Ww
qw

123

Ws
Vpy

where, Ws is weight of sample that fills the Pycnometer at

the above temperature (kg), and qs is density of sample at
the above temperature (kg/m3).

Preparation of the samples

Vpy

where Vpy, is the volume of the Pycnometer at a given

temperature (m3), Ww, and qw, are the weight of water that
fills the Pycnometer (kg), and the density of water (kg/m3)
at the above temperature, respectively.
Density values of water, qw (kg/m3), at desired temperatures, T (C), were taken from the data presented by
Liley et al. [14]. Then density of samples (qs) at measured
temperature was calculated using the following equation:

Density model development

The density values of Yolks and the White where studied
about the possibility of being predicted in different temperatures by physical models related to chemical composition (proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, water, and ash) [10,
15]:
1
q P xi

qi

The parameters xi and qi are mass fraction and density

value of the components, and the latter is obtained from the
following equations [16], while subscript i is fat (f), protein
(p), water (w), ash (a), and carbohydrate (c).
qc 1:5991  103  0:31046  T
3

qa 2:4238  10  0:28063  T

qf 9:2559  102  0:41757  T

qp 1:3299  103  0:51480  T

qw 997:18 3:1439  103 T  3:7574  103 T 2

Thermal conductivity measurement system development

Thermal conductivity was determined by a line source
probe, similar to the one described by Baghe-khandan et al.
[17], containing a hypodermic tubing 4.6 cm long and
1 mm in diameter attached to a plastic handle. Constantan
wire 0.05 mm in diameter with enamel insulation was
utilized as the doubled heater wire. Thermocouple wires
were enamel coated chrome and constantan with plastic
tubing which insulated the thermocouple junction. The
heater and thermocouple wires were insulated from each
other and hypodermic tubing. A version of the thermal
conductivity measurement system, developed by McGinnis
[18] was used to supply power, measure current, and record
temperature and voltage values (Fig. 1). The accuracy of

Thermal pasteurization of intact eggs

Fig. 1 Set-up of the thermal
conductivity measurement
system [9]

the current measurement in the heater circuit was

0.1 mA. The temperaturetime and voltagetime data
were continuously collected by a digital recorder (data
logger supcon, china), bi-directionally interfaced with a
PC, so measurement could be programmed on a computer.
The record of voltage was used to find the initial time of
the heating [19].
Calibration

varied between 1.2 and 5.4 W m-1, and they were sufficiently weak in order not to disturb the effective value of
thermal conductivity of material. Seven measurements
were performed for each sample. Reported thermal conductivity values for yolks and whites are the mean thermal
conductivity values. Experiments were performed at different temperatures (20, 30, 40, 50 C).
Thermal conductivity model development

The calibration of the probe was performed by measuring

the thermal conductivity of a gel of 0.5 % agar and water at
selected temperatures between 5 and 25 C. This calibration allowed us to determine the heater wire resistance
(R = 375.8 X m-1) which was used in the heater power
calculation.
Thermal conductivity measurement
The slope of linear part of the plot of the temperature
versus ln(time) is equal Q/(4pk). Thus, thermal conductivity of the sample was calculated by using the following
equation:
k Q=4pS

where Q is calculated by:

Q RI 2

10
-1

-1

where k is thermal conductivity (W m C ), Q is power

generated by probe heater (W m-1), S is slope of the linear
portion of the plot of the temperature versus ln (time), R is
perfect gas constant, 8.314510 J mol-1 C-1 and I is current through heater wire (A). To obtain satisfactory linearity of temperature versus ln(time) plot, the procedure was
standardized by (1) choosing an appropriate power level to
increase the temperature up to 10 C (initial temperature
basis), (2) using a duration of 10 s, and (3) accepting
thermal conductivity values measured only when
r2 [ 0.98. To obtain these conditions, current range of
0.140.24 A was necessary. Thus, the chosen power levels

Thermal conductivity could be analyzed by physical

models based on chemical composition (proteins, fats,
carbohydrates, ash and water content). In this study,
modified Krischers and parallel models were proposed for
egg whites and yolks in intact eggs, respectively. Krischers model recognizes that there are two extremes in
thermal conductivity values: one being derived from the
parallel model and the other being derived from the series
model, whilst the real value of thermal conductivity should
be somewhat between these two extremes. A conceptual
diagram is shown in Fig. 2. The distribution factor (fk) is a
weighing factor between these extremes. Assuming that the
eggs are a five-phase system consisting protein (p), water
(w), fat (f), ash (a), and carbohydrate (c), Krischer, series,
and parallel models are described by following equations
[16]:
keff T

1fk
kpa T

1
k
ksefT

11

kpa T ef T kf T ep T kp T ew T kw T
ea T ka T ec T kc T
kse T

1
ea T
ka T

ep T
kp T

ew T
kw T

e T

kff T keccT
T

12
13

where keff, kpa, and kse are the effective thermal conductivity by the Krischer, Parallel, and Series models,
respectively. kf, kp, kw, ka and kc are the thermal conductivities of fat, protein, water, ash and carbohydrate,
respectively, obtained from the following equations:

123

B. Abbasnezhad et al.

Fig. 2 Krischer model development. [29]

kw T 0:57109 1:7625  103 T  6:703610

 106 T 2

14

Fig. 3 Egg shaped aluminum used to determine surface heat transfer

coefficient

kc T 0:20141 1:3874  103 T  4:33  106 T 2

15
kf T 0:18071 2:7604  104 T  1:7749  106 T 2
16
3

17
18

ei as a function of temperature is obtained from the following equation:

ei

qapp xi T
qi

19

where xi and qi are the mass fraction (kg/kg product) and

density (kg/m3) of the mentioned chemical components,
respectively.
Surface heat transfer coefficient
A prolate spheroid of pure aluminum 6 9 4.5 cm,
weighting 178.1 g, was used to estimate the surface heat
transfer coefficient during the warm-up by hot water in 50,
55, and 60 C (Fig. 3). A 0.5 mm diameter, 1.85 cm deep
hole, was drilled toward the center of the geometry from
the end. The aluminum prolate spheroid was placed in the
egg holder, and a 0.5 mm diameter K-type thermocouple
was inserted into the hole. The aluminum spheroid and the
holder were then immersed into the hot water at 50, 55, and
60 C. The temperature values of the inner side of the
prolate spheroid were recorded in 1 s intervals for 180 s,
using the same recording system for the thermal experiments. The coefficients of the regression line of time versus
ln(Ta - Tal) were calculated, and the slope (m) was used in
Eq. 20 to find the surface heat transfer coefficient(h) [20].

123

Mal Cpal
Sm

20

This equation is as follows:

6 2

kp T 0:17881 1:1958  10 T  2:7178  10 T

kw T 0:57109 1:7625  103 T  6:703610
 106 T 2

hm

hm AT  T1 MCp

oT
ot

21

In this equation, Cp, Mal, S, and m are the heat capacity of

aluminum, weight of aluminum, aluminum surface area,
and slope of the ln (Ta - Tal) over time graph, respectively. Irradiation was removed by polishing the surface of
aluminum block.
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)
Thermal denaturation of egg white and yolk samples were
analyzed using TA Instruments DSC (Linseis L81/1750,
Germany). Prior to analysis, Calibration was done by water
[21]. Small amount (3040 mg) of egg samples were hermetically sealed in hermetic aluminum pans. During analysis, samples were scanned at a heating rate of 5 C/min
from 30 to 90 C. A sealed empty pan was used as the
reference and for baseline corrections [21, 22].
Flow behavior
Viscosity measurements were conducted at different temperatures using concentric cylinder viscometer (Brookfield
LVDV III Ultra, Brookfield Engineering Lab. Inc., MA,
USA) equipped with a cylindrical spindle SC4-18 (cylinder
diameter 17.48 mm, side length 31.72 mm, effective length
35.53 mm, and 6.8 ml of sample volume) for egg whites,
and (Brookfield RVDV III Ultra Brookfield Engineering
Lab. Inc., MA, USA), SC4-27 type spindle (cylinder
diameter 11.76 mm, side length 33.02 mm, effective length
35.29 mm and 10.4 ml of sample volume) for egg yolks.

Thermal pasteurization of intact eggs

Rotational speeds for egg whites were between 6 (7.92 s-1)

to 41 rpm (54.12 s-1), and for yolks between 3 (1.02 s-1)
to 99 rpm (33.6 s-1). For measuring hysteresis loop, shear
rate in both cases of yolks and whites decreased from the
highest to the lowest shear rate. A thermostatic water bath
(ED F12 model, Julabo, USA), equipped with a circulator
(15 l min-1), was used to control the temperature of operation. Before each measurement, the samples were allowed
to equilibrate at the desired temperature. During the
experiments, shear rate and apparent viscosity values were
recorded by a personal computer, attached to the Viscometer, using a software program (Rheocalc-RC32, Brookfield
Eng., MA, USA).

An Arrhenius-type equation was used to define the effect of

temperature on the apparent viscosity:


g or K A0 exp Ea=RT
22
where A0 is an empirical constant, Ea, the activation energy
for flow (j/mol), R, the gas constant (j/mol C), and T the
absolute temperature [23]. The suitability of the fitted
models was appraised by the coefficient of determination
(r2) as well as the root mean square error (RMSE).
q

P
kpre  kexp 2
23
RMSE
n1
where, kpre and kexp refer to predicted and experimented
values of apparent viscosity and the letter (n) indicates the
number of samples in the mentioned temperature range.
Rheological parameters
Non-Newtonian models have been developed by correlation of experimental values to specific fundamental equations. Power law and HerschelBulkley models were used
to study flow behavior of egg yolks and whites, respectively. Power-law model:
24

where K is the consistency coefficient (Pa sn), n is the flow

behavior index (dimensionless), and c_ is shear rate (1/s).
When ln (apparent viscosity) was plotted against ln (shear
rate), the apparent viscosity could be estimated by Eq. (24):
ln ga a ln c_

ga K c_n1

25

HerschelBulkley:
r K c_n r0

ga K c_

ga K c_n1 r0 c_1

29

Results and discussion

Chemical analysis
Table 1 shows the chemical components of the groups. The
results were in a good agreement with American Egg
Board [8].
Density
The density of both groups decreased with increasing
temperature. Density (q) data were correlated by the
Eqs. 48 (Fig. 4). Fitted functions presented r2 values
higher than 0.99 and RMSE lower than 0.0012. The results
were in a good agreement with those reported by Atlgan
and Unluturk [27] .
Thermal conductivity measurement
The results of power level tests showed that there were no
significant differences in measured thermal conductivity
values
when
applying
the
different
powers
(1.22.5 W m-1) in the different temperature values.
Totally, the values of thermal conductivity measured by the
line source probe method were reproducible (2 % uncertainty experimental standard deviation). Figure 5 shows
the effective thermal conductivity values, measured for egg
Table 1 Average amount of chemical components of egg white and
yolk

26
n

28

r0 is the yield stress value (Pa). The apparent viscosity

decreases with an increase in shear rate after the initial
stress has overcome. The respective expressions for the
apparent viscosity as function of shear rate are [26]:

Which can be rewritten as:

b

27

where K represents the consistency coefficient (Pa sn), n is

the flow behavior index (dimensionless), c_ is shear rate (1/
s), and r0 refers to the yield stress value (Pa).

Effect of temperature on apparent viscosity

r K c_n

and write a result for the apparent viscosity as follows [24,

25] :

where ga is the apparent viscosity (Pa s ) and K = exp(a).

Instead of b, we commonly use (n - 1) for the exponent

White
Yolk

Water
(%)

Ash
(%)

Protein
(%)

Fat
(%)

Carbohydrate
(%)

86.5
51.5

0.055
1.5

10.25
16

0.05
26

0.975
1.075

123

B. Abbasnezhad et al.

white and yolk, in the temperature range of 2050 C. It is

seen that the effective thermal conductivity is dependent on
the chemical components (especially water content) and
temperature. It increases with increasing the water content
due to the greater thermal conductivity of water, compared
to the other components. The Effective thermal conductivity increased with increasing temperature due to the
thermal energy, movement, and collision grown between
molecules [10, 28].
Effective thermal conductivity models
To clarify, Fig. (5) depicts the comparison between
experimental and predicted effective thermal conductivity
values of the egg yolks and whites by the series, parallel,
and Krischer models, respectively, as a function of temperature and chemical composition. As can be seen, the
predicted thermal conductivity values of whites, using
Krischer model by fk = 0.20 (RMSE = 0.0061 and

1050
1045

Density (kg / m 3)

1040
1035
1030
1025
1020
1015
1010

white Model

yolk model

1005

white measurement

yolk measurement

10

20

30

40

50

Surface heat transfer coefficients

The surface heat transfer coefficient, measured by transient
temperature method, is presented in Table 2 (results are the
mean values of 15 tests). The results showed increasing
surface heat transfer coefficients due to the temperature
increase.
Differential scanning calorimetry
Denaturation thermograms of the egg whites and yolks
were obtained by DSC. The DSC curve of fresh egg whites
shows 4 main peaks (Fig. 6): the first at 60 C while the
peak (maximum) denaturation temperature was around
63.5 C, due to conalbumin denaturation; the second at
66 C, due to lysozyme denaturation, and a double peak at
79 and 82 C due to ovalbumin and S-ovalbumin denaturation. Egg yolk contains large amount of lipoproteins
which could not be well distinguished by calorimetric
methods in comparison to the proteins of egg whites.
Therefore, DSC curve of egg yolks showed just one peak
for each sample due to total lipoproteins. The peak denaturation temperature of yolk proteins was around 76 C, in
Table 2 Surface heat transfer coefficients in different temperatures

1000
0

and
yolk,
using
parallel
model
r2 = 0.996),
(RMSE = 0.0032 and r2 = 0.992), were in agreement with
the experimental values in temperatures range of 2050 C.
The value of distribution factor is highly depended on the
moisture content of the food materials [19].

60

Temperature (C)

50 C

55 C

60 C

Surface heat transfer coefficients (W/m2 C)

1,744

1,982

2,072

Temperature (C)

Fig. 4 Density of egg whites and yolks as a function of temperature

(a)

(b)

0.5

Thermal Conductivity (W/M.C)

Thermal Conductivity (W/M.C)

0.7
0.65
0.6
0.55
0.5
0.45

Seri model

Parallel model

Measurement

Krischer's model

0.4

0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
Seri model
Measurement

0.25

Parallel model

0.2
0

10

20

30

40

Temperarue (C)

50

60

70

20

40

60

Temperarue (C)

Fig. 5 Experimental and predicted thermal conductivity values by series and parallel and Krischer model a whites b yolks

123

80

Thermal pasteurization of intact eggs

Temperature (C)
95

85

75

65

55

45

35

25
0

Heat flux (mW)

-2
-4
-6
-8
-10
-12
-14
-16
yolk

-18

white

Fig. 6 DSC curve of fresh egg whites and yolks

agreement with Ferreira et al., Mahadevan, and Ibanoglu

and Ercelebi [21, 22, 29].
Rheology
Figures 7 and 8 show the flow curves (shear stress versus
shear rate) of liquid egg whites and yolks at different

0.6

forward

backward

model forward

model backward

0.6

forward

backward

model forward

model backward

0.5

0.5

25C

50C
Shear Stress (Pa)

Shear Stress (Pa)

temperatures (25, 50, 55 and 60 C) for both increasing and

decreasing shear rates (forward and backward direction).
The presence of a hysteresis area between the shear stress
versus shear rate curves for increasing and decreasing shear
rates indicates that the samples flow is time-dependent. It
is evident from Table 3 that the largest hysteresis loop
occurred at 25 C for egg whites. The hysteresis area
decreased with increasing temperature and this area in egg
whites was more considerable than egg yolks. Therefore,
thixotropy in egg whites were more distinct. The developed
power-law model for yolks had satisfactory correlation
coefficients (r2) greater than 0.99 for all samples and
RMSE lower than 0.025. Rheological parameters of the
yolks are presented in Table 4. The behavior index values
varied from 0.87 to 0.91 for forward measurement and 0.89
to 0.92 for backward measurement indicating that, in this
range of temperature, the egg yolks behave pseudoplastic.
The consistency index varied from 0.13 to 0.68 Pa sn for
forward measurement and 0.118 to 0.62 Pa sn for backward measurement.

0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1

0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1

0.0

0.0
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

10

20

Shear Rate (S-1)

0.6

0.6

forward

backward

model forward

model backward

0.5

40

50

60

0.5

forward

backward

model forward

model backward

60C
Shear Stress (Pa)

55C
Shear Stress (Pa)

30

Shear Rate (S-1)

0.4
0.3
0.2

0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1

0.1

0.0

0.0
0

10

20

30

40

Shear Rate (S-1)

50

60

10

20

30

40

50

60

Shear Rate (S-1)

Fig. 7 Experimental data and HerschelBulkley model of (Shear rateshear stress) for whites at 25, 50, 55, and 60 C

123

B. Abbasnezhad et al.
forward
model forward

16.0

backward
model backward

backward

model forward

12.0

25C

10.0
8.0
6.0
4.0

model backward

50C

4.0

Shear Stress (Pa)

Shear Stress (Pa)

forward

5.0

14.0

3.0

2.0

1.0
2.0
0.0

0.0
0

10

20

30

40

10

20

5.0

forward

backward

model forward

model backward

40

3.0

2.0

backward

model forward

1.0

model backward

60C

4.0

Shear Stress (Pa)

Shear Stress (Pa)

forward

5.0

55C

4.0

30

Shear Rate (S-1)

Shear Rate (S-1)

3.0

2.0

1.0

0.0

0.0
0

10

20

30

40

10

20

30

40

Shear Rate (S-1)

Shear Rate (S-1)

Fig. 8 Experimental data and power law model of (Shear stressshear rate) for yolks at 25, 50, 55, and 60 C

Table 3 HerschelBulkley model parameters and hysteresis area of egg whites at different temperatures (shear stress vs. shear rate)
T (C)

Hysteres is area (Pa s)

Yield stress (pa)

Forward measurements
n

K (Pa s )

Backward measurement
2

RMSE

K (Pa sn)

r2

RMSE

25

11.92

0.0027

0.038

0.64

0.996

0.0241

0.014

0.87

0.999

0.0117

50
55

4.39
3.67

0.0041
0.0044

0.039
0.072

0.55
0.47

0.996
0.993

0.0204
0.0035

0.022
0.046

0.68
0.55

0.999
0.998

0.04481
0.01604

60

3.01

0.0054

0.079

0.4

0.998

0.0119

0.055

0.46

0.992

0.01694

A yield stress was observed in the cases of whites. The

flow curves of egg whites could be well fitted by the
HerschelBulkley model, in a range of 2560 C. The
rheological parameters of egg whites are presented in
Table 3. The behavior index showed values varying from
0.4 to 0.64 for forward measurement and 0.46 to 0.87 for
backward measurement indicating that, in this range of
temperature, the egg white is pseudoplastic in nature. The
consistency index varied from 0.038 to 0.079 Pa sn for
forward measurement and 0.14 to 0.055 Pa sn for backward measurement.

123

In order to confirm these findings, apparent viscosity

versus shear rate in different temperatures was recorded
and modeled. HerschelBulkley model (Fig. 9a) was tested
for egg whites and Power law model (Fig. 9b) was examined for egg yolks, and. The models could predict experimental data with correlation coefficients (r2) greater than
0.99 for all samples and RMSE were lower than 0.025.
The effect of temperature on the apparent viscosity at
constant shear rate and different temperature is illustrated
in Fig. 10. An Arrhenius-type equation was used to quantify the effect of temperature on apparent viscosity. Linear

Thermal pasteurization of intact eggs

Table 4 Power law model
parameters and hysteresis area
of yolk at different temperatures
(shear stress vs. shear rate)

T (C)

Hysteresis
area (Pa s)

Forward measurements
K (Pa s )

25

3.775

0.682

0.87

50

0.721

0.184

0.89

55

0.547

0.144

60

0.458

0.13

(a)

0.035

RMSE

K (Pa sn)

r2

RMSE

0.999

0.08720

0.62

0.89

0.9996

0.02568

0.993

0.03758

0.173

0.91

0.9993

0.03689

0.90

0.992

0.06824

0.146

0.915

0.9991

0.03708

0.91

0.999

0.04836

0.118

0.92

0.9989

0.03379

(b)

0.9
0.8

0.025

25 C

50 C

55 C

60 C

Apparent viscosity (Pa.sn)

0.030

Apparent viscosity (Pa.sn)

Backward measurement

0.020
0.015
0.010
0.005

0.7

25 C
55 C

50 C
60 C

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0

0.000
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

10

15

20

25

30

35

Shear rate (s-1)

Shear rate (s-1)

Fig. 9 Apparent viscosity-Shear rate diagram of a whites b yolks at different temperatures

(a)

(b)

0.60

Apparent viscosity (pa.s n)

Apparent viscosity (pa.s n)

0.02

0.015

0.01

0.005

0.45

0.30

0.15

0.00
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Temperature (C)

10

20

30

40

50

60

Temperature (C)

Fig. 10 Apparent viscosity versus temperature at specific shearing speeds (white: 14.52 s-1, yolk: 9.18 s-1) for estimation of activation energy
for a whites, b yolks

form of Eq. (22) was fitted to experimental data to find the

values of the flow activation energy. Table 5 shows the
estimated activation energy values for each sample in
specific shear speeds (yolks: 9.18 s-1, whites: 14.52 s-1).

It was observed that apparent viscosities of liquid egg yolks

and whites decreased with increasing temperature
(Fig. 10). Activation energy (Ea) value for egg yolks was
more than whites, which means that this part is more

123

B. Abbasnezhad et al.
Table 5 Activation energy for yolks and whites
2

RMSE

Ea (j/mol)

Yolks

36,496

0.997

0.0002

Whites

4,432

0.998

0.0003

sensitive to temperature rather than the white, and this

needs more attention when thermal pasteurization process
is applied.

Conclusion
Models, based on chemical composition, could be used to
predict density of eggs at different temperatures, during
pasteurization. The density changes observed during the
thermal processing were small, and no sudden change has
been observed. Considering the DSC data, since there has
not been any protein denaturation below 60 C, the pace of
density decrease was slight. The effective thermal conductivity of egg yolks and whites at selected temperatures
was measured by a line-source heat probe. Three models of
thermal conductivity, determined by chemical composition, were tested and compared with measured data: parallel model, series model, and Krischers model. The
results showed that thermal conductivity increases with
temperature, and for egg white, Krischers model
(fk = 0.2) was in a good agreement to predict effective
thermal conductivity. The effective thermal conductivity of
yolk was in a good agreement with parallel models. Surface heat transfer coefficient showed a straight relation
with the pasteurization temperature. Denaturation thermograms showed that at 60 C, white proteins started to be
denatured. As a result, to keep quality of egg proteins,
whole egg pasteurization should be done below 60 C.
According to the results of viscometry, non-Newtonian
models were appropriate to describe the rheological
behavior of both the white and the yolk. Yolk could be
described by a power law model, and white could be predict by HerschelBulkley model. The activation energy of
egg yolk was more than white indicating higher sensitivity
to temperature. To sum up, it is possible to optimize the
thermal pasteurization of intact eggs based on the current
predictive models for thermophysical properties. In addition, these properties can also be used as an input for
modeling of heat transfer during the thermal processing.

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