Monitoring the quality changes and freshness assessment of eggs based on chemometrics method

Abstract Despite their low cost, egg mislabeling is a prevalent problem in the market, resulting in the sale of stale eggs as fresh. In this study, unlike the classical egg freshness parameters such as Haugh Unit and air cell height, UV–Visible (UV‐Vis) spectra, fluorescence spectroscopy, and pH + color properties combined chemometrics methods were used to monitor the eggs' ages. It is known that these methods are able to detect furosine formation and chemical changes during storage. To do this, the qualities of eggs were observed for 15–24 days at three different temperatures: 4°C (refrigeration temperature), 25°C (room temperature), and 35°C (abuse temperature). After conducting a pattern recognition analysis using principal component analysis (PCA), a correlation between storage days and UV–Vis spectra, fluorescence spectra, and pH + color parameters at various temperatures was created using the partial least‐squares (PLS) method. Results showed that PLS models were able to predict eggs' ages successfully. The most reliable age assessment models for eggs were obtained for UV–Vis spectra and fluorescence spectra (ex: 320 nm) of egg samples at 35°C. Real and predicted ages of eggs were presented in validation graphs of UV–Vis spectra and fluorescence spectra (ex: 320 nm) with excellent performance of R 2 P of 0.96 and 0.97, and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 1.08 and 0.87, respectively. This method could help food safety organizations use UV–Vis and fluorescence spectrometers at various levels of the egg supply chain as an alternative method.