POLISH JOURNAL OF FOOD AND NUTRITION SCIENCES

Pol. J. Food Nutr. Sci. 2005, Vol. 14/55, SI 1, pp. 15-20

ENRICHMENT OF EGGS AND POULTRY MEAT WITH BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE SUBSTANCES

BY FEED MODIFICATIONS AND EFFECTS ON THE FINAL QUALITY OF THE PRODUCT

Michael A. Grashorn

Dept. of Farm Animal Ethology and Poultry Science, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany

Key words: chicken meat, eggs, enrichment, functional food

In developed countries nutrition of people is assured. Therefore, consumers are not longer interested only in the nutritive value of their food but in the
content of natural substances exhibiting special health effects. This has led to the development of functional foods. Already in the late 1980ies first attempts
have been made by enriching chicken eggs with omega-3 fatty acids which have proven beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system. Meanwhile, enrich-
ment procedures have been extended to other components and as well to poultry meat.
Enriching both eggs and poultry meat with health promoting substances is quite easily achieved. In general, enrichment of eggs is more pronounced
than enrichment of poultry meat due to the higher fat content of eggs. When enriching eggs and poultry meat with health promoting substances it has to be
considered that a negative impact on quality features may occur. This is mainly proven for n-3 fatty acids due to increased liability to oxidation and for CLA
due to the increase in toughness of poultry meat. But, the functional food approach is an interesting issue for egg and poultry meat production as functional
eggs and functional poultry meat may contribute significantly to the intake of health promoting substances in humans.

INTRODUCTION TABLE 1. Selected nutrients of the ‘Columbus Egg’ in England and

covering of human RDI [De Meester et al., 2000].
In developed countries nutrition of people is assured.
Therefore, consumers are not longer interested only in the Covering of
Columbus
nutritive value of their food but in the content of natural recommended daily
Egg
intake (%)
substances exhibiting special health effects, although espe-
cially the chicken egg provides high contents of ‘healthy’ Omega-3 fatty acids >600 mg 150
substances (e.g. n3 fatty acids, antioxidants, immunglobulins Vitamin E 10 mg 100
etc.) [Narahari, 2003; Nau et al., 2002; Ternes & Drotleff, Selenium 35 μg 50
2001]. In the past many attempts have been made to enrich Iodine 50 μg 25
poultry products with these kinds of substances resulting in β-Carotin 150 IE 5
the development of functional eggs [Pritchard, 2003] and
Polyphenols Traces -
chicken meat. But, the enrichment of products may have a
negative effect on product quality [Surai et al., 2002].
The present paper will give an overview on enriching chick-
en eggs and poultry meat with special types of fatty acids and are suitable dietary sources for this purpose [f.e. Farrell, 1993;
antioxidants and the effects of enrichment on product quality. Murakami et al., 2003; Rizzi et al., 2003, Salobir et al., 2003;
Scheideler & Froning, 1996; Yannakopoulos et al., 2004]. The
ENRICHED CHICKEN EGGS contents of linolenic (LNA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA) ac-
ids may be increased in egg yolk by the factor 5 to 30, depend-
Omega-3 fatty acids ing on the dietary sources and their contents in the diet. The
It is well known that dietary fatty acid profiles are directly most enriched chicken eggs are at the time the ‘Designer Eggs’
reflected in the lipids of egg yolks. Therefore, many attempts which contain a 30 times higher content of DHA than the stan-
have been made to enrich eggs with n-3 fatty acids which have dard egg [Narahari, 2003]. Other examples are the ‘Omega
proven positive effects on the cardio vascular system, and re- Egg’ in Germany [Hartfiel et al., 1997], the ‘Columbus Egg’
duced inflammation processes as well as cancer in humans. in the United Kingdom (Table 1) and the ‘Bio-omega-3 egg’
This research started already in the 1980ies with David Farrell in Greece (Table 2). In all cases one egg will fully cover the
as the main activist [f.e. Farrell, 1995]. Results of research RDI of n-3 fatty acids for humans. Besides, the eggs provide
indicated that linseed, linseed oil, rapeseed, fish oil or algae as well considerable amounts of vitamin E and Se. But, en-

*Author’s address for correspondence: Michael A. Grashorn, Dept. of Farm Animal Ethology and Poultry Science, Institute 470c, University of Hohenheim,
70593 Stuttgart, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]
16 M.A. Grashorn

TABLE 2. Nutritive content of conventional and Bio-Omega-3 TABLE 3. Contents of carotinoids in fresh eggs (dietary contents:
eggs [Yannakopoulos et al., 2004]. apo-8-ester 3 mg/kg; canthaxanthin 4 mg/kg; native xanthophylls
2.5 mg/kg; yolk colour according to the DSM colour fan 13; own
Conventional Bio-Omega-3 investigations).
Unit/egg
egg egg
Lipids g 4.74 4.15 Pigment Source μg/Egg
PUFA g 0.9 1.19 Lutein natural 37
Omega-3 mg 40 350 Zeaxanthin natural 6
Cholesterol mg 220 175 Apo-8-Ester artficial 205
Iodine μg 9 34 Canthaxanthin artificial 206
Selenium μg 5 22 Total pigments - 454
Vitamin E mg 0.7 3.5

riching eggs with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) will Cystatine and lysozyme
result in a higher liability of eggs to oxidation and to off-fla- Composition and level of proteins in albumen cannot be
vours [Surai et al., 2002; Tserveni-Gousi et al., 2004]. Off- changed easily as proteins are not directly transferred from
-flavours may further occur by the use of fish oil as a dietary the food to the egg as formation of proteins is determined
source due to included fish typical components. Therefore, for by the RNA code and takes place in the magnum. Albumen
the production of n-3 enriched eggs only high quality fish oil includes many proteins with antimicrobial or even antivi-
should be used and distinct amounts of antioxidants (f.e. α- ral activity, as the albumen is the barrier of the developing
tocopherol) should be supplemented, as well [Galobart et al., embryo to microorganisms in the surrounding environment.
1999; Krämer et al., 1997]. Up to now no clear negative effect The most interesting proteins in the albumen are cystatine
of n-3 enrichment on other quality criteria of eggs, including and lysozyme (Table 4), but also immunglobuline yolk (IgY)
functional properties could be observed. [Lagarde, 2000; Sim et al., 2000; Trziszka et al., 2002]. Con-
tents and activities of these proteins may be increased by
Conjugated linoleic acid stimulating the immune system of the hen. This may be done
Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) may reduce the risk of by vaccination with sheep red blood cells (SRBC) or other
cancer, atherosclerosis and plasma cholesterol level and may challenging agents [Sim et al., 2000]. Furthermore, it is well
strengthen the immune system [Aletor et al., 2003; Aydin et known that also differences between genotypes of hens exist
al., 2001]. Normally, CLA uptake in humans is by milk or for contents and activities of cytstatine and lysozyme, allow-
milk products [Fritsche & Steinhart, 1998]. But, CLA may ing for selection programs for increased levels of these pro-
also be enriched in eggs by feeding diets containing special teins. No information is available on probable effects on egg
oil formulations supplemented with CLA [Du et al., 2001]. quality, but it has to be considered that egg white proteins
may cause allergies in humans [Mine, 2003].
Antioxidants
The most famous antioxidant used in animal nutrition POULTRY MEAT
is α-tocopherol (α-TA), which is easily deposited in the egg
yolk [Galobart et al., 1999, 2001; Hartfiel et al., 1997; Surai Omega-3 fatty acids
et al., 1995]. But, other existing substances in yolks may also As in eggs omega-3 fatty acids may easily be incorporated into
prohibit oxidation, as selenium or carotenoids [Rizzi et al., tissues of meat-type poultry [Coetze & Hoffman, 2002; Cortinas
2003; Salobir et al., 2003; Tucker et al., 2003; Yaroshenko et et al., 2004; Lopez-Ferrer et al., 1999;]. The same dietary sources
al., 2004]. Antioxidants are deposited in yolks according to are used for this purpose with the exception that fish products
dietary levels. Enriching egg yolks with α-TA or carotenoids are avoided due to occurring off-flavours (Table 5). Exchanging
(Table 3) can be done in a wide range and does not affect egg the content of fish oil in the diet by linseed oil or rapeseed oil
quality, except that with increasing levels of carotenoids in- in the last two weeks of fattening will not result in these quality
tensity of yolk colour increases. Supplementing carotenoids aberrations. Another point of interest may be that increasing the
to diets it has to be considered that yellow and red pigments n-3 fatty acid content in tissues may result in lower fatness of
should be added in ratios given by the manufacturer to avoid carcasses [Crespo & Esteve-Garcia, 2001]. Using diets rich in n-
off-colours [Galobart et al., 2001]. The artificial carotenoids 3 fatty acids increases contents of n-3 PUFA in breast and thigh
(apo-8-ester, canthaxanthin) usually supplemented to the meat by 10 to 12 times, providing 60 to 200% of the n-3 RDI for
layer’s diet cover more than 90% of total carotenoids in the humans, respectively. But, n-3 enriched poultry meat is highly
egg. Enriching eggs with Se is more complicated as high lev- susceptible to oxidation making the additional supplementation
els of Se in the food are toxic for humans. Nevertheless, it of antioxidants as α-TA necessary [Cortinas et al., 2003].
is easy to enrich eggs with 35 μg Se which amounts to 50 %
of the recommended daily intake (RDI) for humans [Yarosh- Conjugated linoleic acid
enko et al., 2004]. No negative impacts of antioxidants on The content of CLA may be increased by 40 times in
any egg quality criteria are known. breast and thigh meat, by feeding CLA enriched diets to
Enrichment of eggs and poultry meat with biologically active substances 17

TABLE 4. Egg white proteins with anti-microbial activity [after Ternes et al., 1994].

Protein % of protein Properties

Lysozyme 3.5 Complexes with Ovomucin, anti-microbial
Ovomacroglobulin 0.5 Immunogenetic
Ovoinhibitor 0.1 Inhibitor of proteinase
Cystatine 0.05 Acts against Papain and Ficin, anti-microbial

TABLE 5. Sensoric assessment* chicken breast and thigh meat after feeding of diets including fish oil (FO), linseed oil (LO) and rapeseed
oil (RO) [Lopez-Ferrer et al., 1999].

Breast Thigh Breast Thigh

FO** LO RO
5w 0w 1.72 2.38 0w 2.71 2.57
4w 1w 3.50 3.83 1w 3.50 3.95
3w 2w 3.71 4.66 2w 3.90 4.06
0w 5w 4.09 4.75 5w 4.35 4.38
* range: 1 = negative, 5 = positive
** 5 weeks FO and 0 weeks LO/RO, 4 weeks FO and 1 week LO/RO, 3 weeks FO and 2 weeks LO/RO, 0 weeks FO and 5 weeks LO/RO

TABLE 6. Content of saturated, mono-unsaturated, poly-unsaturated (without CLA) and conjugated fatty acids (CLA) in breast and thigh
meat depending on the dietary content of CLA (mg/ 100 g tissue) [Sirri et al., 2003].

Fatty acid 0 % CLA 2 % CLA 4 % CLA

Breast muscle
SAT 277 244 284
MUFA 241 144 177
PUFA (without CLA) 332 278 291
CLA 1.5 32.1 69.5
n-3 27.6 28.6 24.2
Thigh muscle
SAT 593 596 625
MUFA 670 425 463
PUFA (without CLA) 830 679 675
CLA 4.7 95.5 177
n-3 64.7 50.8 51.0
SAT = saturated fatty acids, MUFA = mono-unsaturated fatty acids, PUFA = poly-unsaturated fatty acids, n-3 = Omega-3 fatty acids

broilers [Aletor et al., 2003; Aydin et al., 2001; Sirri et al., Antioxidants
2003; Du & Ahn, 2002]. Despite this high increase in the Poultry meat is easily enriched with α-TA or Se, but
CLA content in breast and thigh meat the RDI for CLA in deposition of α-TA in tissues is decreasing with increasing
humans may only be covered by roughly 10% (Table 6). amounts on PUFA in diets (Table 8), indicating the use of
Furthermore, CLA enriched poultry meat shows deviations α-TA for prevention of oxidation [Cortinas et al., 2003; Lo-
in meat quality. CLA enriched meat is more tough, dark pez-Ferrer et al., 1999]. This has to be considered when cal-
and less red and yellow. This is also confirmed by sen- culating the necessary dietary supplementation level of α-TA
soric tests. Colour and flavour of CLA enriched meat were for producing n-3 enriched poultry meat [Muggli, 1994]. In
in favour of the test panel, whereas, texture and juiciness the contrary, Se is deposited in tissues in quite high levels
were assessed negatively (Table 7). The toughness of the [Yaroshenko et al., 2004]. The normal content in tissues may
meat may be explained by the higher proportion of satu- be increased 3 to 4 times when feeding Se supplemented
rated fatty acids in CLA enriched muscle tissues [Du & diets to birds. Se enriched muscle tissues, both thigh and
Ahn, 2002]. breast, may cover up to 60% of the Se RDI for humans (Fig-
18 M.A. Grashorn

TABLE 7. Effect of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) on texture, colour and sensoric features of chicken breast meat [Du & Ahn, 2002].

Fatty acid 0 % CLA 2 % CLA 3 % CLA

Texture (kp) 3.45b
3.62 ab
3.81a
L* 80.7a 80.2a 79.1b
a* 8.44 a
8.28 a
7.80b
b* 22.1a 21.1b 19.2c
Sensory*
Colour 5.94 6.00 6.11
Flovour 6.60 7.03 7.00
Tenderness 6.27 6.30 6.43
Juiciness 5.22 5.12 5.06
*range: 1 = negative, 15 = positive

TABLE 8. Effect of dietary unsaturation and α-tocopheryl acetate supplementation on α-tocopherol content in thigh meat (mg/ kg thigh;
SEM=1.84; P-values<0.0001) [Cortinas et al., 2003].

Dietary PUFA α-tocopheryl acetate (mg(kg)

Global mean
(mg/kg) 0 100 200 400
27 23.2 x
0.33 g
12.6 ef
24.3cd
55.5a
38 18.5 y
0.43 g
12.9 ef
19.1de
41.6b
48 14.6z 0.10g 10.3ef 17.6de 30.5c
59 12.9 z
0.04 g
6.05 fg
15.0 ef
10.6c
Global mean 0.22z 10.5y 19.0x 39.6w

ure 1). No negative impact on meat quality is observed and ity to oxidation and for CLA due to the increase in tough-
expected in α-TA or Se enriched poultry meat. ness of poultry meat.

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