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Candling Errors (Overpull) in California Shell-Egg Processing Plants

University of California, 733 County Center III Court, Modesto, CA 95355

D. Kuney

University of California, 21150 Box Springs Road, Moreno Valley, CA 92387

R. A. Ernst

Dept. Avian Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8532

D. D. Bell

Dept. Avian Sciences, 142 Highlander Hall, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521

G. Zeidler

Dept. Avian Sciences, 138 Highlander Hall, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521

Correspondence: G. Zeidler

Rejecting good eggs by placing them as undergrads (overpull) is a common error among candlers, costing egg processing plants in the U. S. millions of dollars annually. This study of twelve egg cartoning plants in California evaluated overpull problems and searched for possible reasons for candling errors which lead to overpull. It revealed that at a machine speed of up to 240 cases/hr, egg candlers were pulling 82.7% eggs correctly as undergrads; however, 17.3% which they pulled as undergrads were good eggs without any detectable defects. Among those eggs labeled "undergrads," most of the common defects were cracked eggs (70.7%), dirties (6.2%), shell defects (3%), stains (1.3%), B Grade eggs (1.3%), and blood spots (0.2%). The most common reason for overpull was wire marks (42.5%), other reasons included minor shell deformities (11.9%), body checks (11.7%), floating air cells (3.2%), and unknown reasons (30.6%). The literature suggests that false identification of defects can be reduced by extensive training of egg candlers. However, when using higher speed packing equipment, automatic detection devices or additional candlers will be required to perform the basic function of reject detection and to minimize the amount of overpull.

Key Words: Egg candling • overpull • shell-egg processing