Pure dried whole eggs from the United States of America

A powdered egg is a fully

dehydrated In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water, with an accompanying disruption of metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds free water intake, usually due to exercise, disease, or high environmental temperature. Mil ...

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

. Most powdered eggs are made using

spray drying Spray drying is a method of changing a dry powder from a liquid or slurry by rapidly drying with a hot gas. This is the preferred method of drying of many thermally-sensitive materials such as foods and pharmaceuticals, or materials which may requ ...

in the same way that

powdered milk Powdered milk, also called milk powder, dried milk, or dry milk, is a manufactured dairy product made by evaporating milk to dryness. One purpose of drying milk is to preserve it; milk powder has a far longer shelf life than liquid milk and do ...

is made. The major advantages of powdered eggs over fresh eggs are the reduced weight per volume of whole egg equivalent and the

shelf life Shelf life is the length of time that a commodity may be stored without becoming unfit for use, consumption, or sale. In other words, it might refer to whether a commodity should no longer be on a pantry shelf (unfit for use), or no longer on a ...

. Other advantages include smaller usage of storage space, and lack of need for

refrigeration The term refrigeration refers to the process of removing heat from an enclosed space or substance for the purpose of lowering the temperature.International Dictionary of Refrigeration, http://dictionary.iifiir.org/search.phpASHRAE Terminology, ht ...

. Powdered eggs can be used without rehydration when baking, and can be rehydrated to make dishes such as

scrambled eggs Scrambled eggs is a dish made from eggs (usually chicken eggs) stirred, whipped or beaten together while being gently heated, typically with salt, butter, oil and sometimes other ingredients. Preparation Only eggs are necessary to make scramble ...

and

omelette In cuisine, an omelette (also spelled omelet) is a dish made from beaten eggs, fried with butter or oil in a frying pan (without stirring as in scrambled egg). It is quite common for the omelette to be folded around fillings such as chives ...

History

Dehydrated eggs advertisements appeared in the late 1890s in the United States. Powdered eggs appear in literature as a staple of camp cooking at least as early as 1912.''Along the Mohawk trail; or, Boy scouts on Lake Champlain''
Percy Keese Fitzhugh, Grosset & Dunlap, 1912, p. 219. Powdered eggs were used in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

for

rationing Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...

. Powdered eggs are also known as ''dried eggs'', and colloquially during the period of rationing in the UK, as ''Ersatz eggs''. The modern method of manufacturing powdered eggs was developed in the 1930s by Albert Grant and Co. of the

Mile End Road The A11 is a major trunk road in England. It runs roughly north east from London to Norwich, Norfolk, although after the M11 opened in the 1970s and then the A12 extension in 1999, a lengthy section has been downgraded between the suburbs o ...

, London. The cake manufacturer was importing liquid egg from China and one of his staff realised that this was 75% water. An experimental freeze-drying plant was built and tried. Then a factory was set up in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

to process Chinese egg. As war approached, Grant transferred his dried egg facility to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. The British Government lifted the patent during the war and many other suppliers came into the market, notably in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Early importers to the United States included Vic Henningsen Sr. and others in the United Kingdom.

Quality

Powdered eggs have a storage life of 5 to 10 years when stored without oxygen in a cool storage environment. The process of spray-drying eggs so as to make powdered eggs oxidizes the cholesterol, which has been shown to be helpful at reducing aortic atherosclerosis in animal trials.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Powdered Eggs Dried foods Eggs (food) Instant foods and drinks

Eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

History

Quality

See also

References