Pasteurisation of liquid whole egg: Optimal heat treatments in relation to its functional, nutritional and allergenic properties

- Pasteurisation up to 10 min at 60 °C improves whole egg functionalities.
- Pasteurisation between 62 and 64 °C (up to 10min) preserves whole egg functionalities.
- Pasteurisation over 64 °C decreases whole egg functionalities.

Pasteurised liquid egg products represent around 70% of total egg products. Pasteurisation, necessary for microbiological safety, is a unit operation undergone by the totality of liquid whole egg commercialized. The present work aims to investigate the impact of a wide range of pasteurisation rates (among those classically used in industry) on the interfacial properties, in vitro digestibility and antigenicity of whole egg proteins, in order to optimize the unit operation parameters to ensure all whole egg qualities. Pasteurisation from 4 to 10 min at 60 °C improved protein interfacial properties, in vitro digestibility and decreased ovomucoïd antigenicity but did not significantly change ovotransferrin and lysozyme antigenicity. On the opposite, pasteurisation from 4 to 10 min at 66 °C decreased protein in vitro digestibility and increased drastically ovotransferrin antigenicity. Pasteurisation from 4 to 10 min at 60 °C enabled to reach all whole egg properties, but for safety reasons, higher pasteurisation rates at 62 or 64 °C are good compromises to ensure microbiological safety without excessively damaging the functional properties.