Monday, March 3, 2008
I know, just reading those words make some of our cholesterol levels spike. We were curious to find out how eggs are processed after they are laid. So we went to Olivera Egg Ranch in S. San Jose, and wow, we came to the right place; the plant processes one million eggs each day and it bustling with activity!
Olivera Ranch Eggs has a small store front. Here are some of their eggs. They also sell fresh chicken on Saturdays. It has been years since I have tasted "fresh" chicken (I guess the last time was when I lived in Malaysia), so it would be interesting to purchase a fresh chicken one of these days to compare.
We got a chuckle out these "Jumbo" quail eggs!
Balut (from duck eggs), ready for sale. We found out that duck eggs are not USDA inspected, so they can sell balut.
At the start of the tour, we visited with Dawn, a USDA inspector. An egg processing plant has to hire a USDA inspector to oversee the production line if they want the "USDA graded" brand on their eggs. This is her "office" (a little hole in the wall, literally).
Dawn randomly picks about 3000 eggs a day to make sure that they meet the USDA standards. She's candling an egg to show us an egg with a crack. We also learned that sometimes, when chickens get spooked, they develop blood clots, which show up in eggs. I think I have actually seen these blood clots in some eggs (a certain percentage are allowed in a batch).
A tool to measure the air sac, which also plays a part in the overall egg grading.
Since Dawn checks about 3000 eggs a day, she is quite deft at handling them. She holds two eggs in each hand, spinning them against the light to check for defects. Then she rolls the other egg forward and repeats.... kind of like how
Chinese exercise balls are used. There is tons of information about how to grade eggs here at the
USDA site.
At the plant floor. Olivera owns one million chickens in Stockton. These blue cartons of eggs have just arrived from the farm. The plant processes one million eggs each day. A worker unloads the blue cartons from the pallets and places them into stacks next to a conveyor belt.
Cartons are lifted from the stacks onto the conveyor belt.
The eggs are still dirty at this point
Oops.
As the eggs travel further down the conveyor, suction cups lift the eggs into a special soapy solution, where they are also scrubbed.
More accidents. Not to worry, there is no waste...
Once the eggs are washed, they are passed through mineral oil, which replaces the protective cuticle that has been washed off.
Then, eggs are inspected by a candler for cracks and breakage.
The candler taps defective eggs with a wand. The position of the bad egg is recorded, and later on down the line, the egg will be removed (i.e. not sent along for packaging).
Sometimes, the handler will just pick up the defective eggs...
and throws them into a pail.
55-gallon drums of rejects. They are used to make dog food.
After candling, the good eggs are diverted into lines. You can see the eggs as they travel along this highway.
They are dropped into different lines according to their weight. Some lines have more eggs than others - most are mid-sized eggs.
Eggs being sorted into rows of 6 eggs each.
Eggs being pushed onto rollers.
They are then dropped into cartons.
Here's a pack of 18 eggs.
All of this takes only minutes. A worker is refilling stacks of cartons often.
Voila! A packaged carton of eggs, ready to be shipped to the grocery store.
I'm not sure where the brown eggs were processed, because we didn't see any. However, here they are, all prepared to be wrapped in plastic.
Eggs in a plastic bag being fed into the vacumn/sealing machine.
The other side of the vacumn/sealer.
Brown eggs ready for the market!
In the warehouse, are pallets of packaging material,
and egg cartons.
Finally, the eggs are stored in a refrigerator. USDA has a 30-day "sell by" date. If eggs are not USDA-graded, they can have up to a 60-day "sell by" date.
Pallets of eggs loaded into shipping containers.
We also visited the chicken coop.
White roosters for sale.
Hens for sale.
M was fascinated (and probably dizzy from the smell! LOL)
The quail coop.
This is what we have been waiting for.... the Balut Incubators!!! {{shudder}}
Ping holding duck egg baluts.
Duck embryo {{{SHUDDER}}}
Oh dear, this photo is sideways, but you get the picture. Drawers and drawers of duck eggs, at different stages of development.
They also keep geese for goose eggs.
We came home with a gift from the Olivera family :)
M has kept this egg out since last Friday. He's waiting to see how the air sac will grow as the egg deteriorates (when the egg floats, it is bad).
Visit the Exploratorium's site for The Accidental Scientist,
Science of Cooking: Eggs and click on Visit a Farm for a different tour.
Good Eats episode:
The Egg-Files (Season 1)
Little Big Lunch (Season 14)
Eggs Benedict
