Green tea powder supplementation increased viscosity and decreased lysozyme activity of egg white during storage of eggs from Huainan partridge chicken

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether green tea powder (GTP) addition could affect egg quality and egg storage. Eggs were collected after 12 weeks of feeding from control and GTP treatment groups of Huainan partridge hens. Egg quality, radical scavenging capacity, albumen viscosity, lysozyme content and activity were compared between the two groups during egg storage. Eggs from hens supplemented with GTP exhibited higher albumen height, albumen antioxidant capacity, albumen viscosity and haugh unit and lower shell thickness and shell strength when compared to control group (p < .05). During egg storage, eggs from GTP group showed lower decrease of albumen height, albumen antioxidant capacity, albumen viscosity and haugh unit. Eggs from GTP group showed a greater decrease of eggshell thickness and shell strength, increased air space diameter and lower lysozyme activity as compared to the control group during egg storage (p < .05). In conclusion, GTP addition in laying hens decreased eggshell thickness and increased water evaporation from egg white, lowered the activity of lysozyme from egg white. Therefore, eggs collected from Huainan partridge hens fed GTP have poor storage stability.

Highlights

• Green tea powder (GTP) added in laying hens diet increased albumen height and haugh unit, and the hydroxyl radical scavenging activity of egg white.

• GTP added in laying hens diet decreased eggshell thickness and shell strength.

• Laying hens fed diet containing GTP increased air space diameter and lowered lysozyme activity during egg storage.

Keywords:

• Green tea powder
• egg quality
• albumen viscosity
• lysozyme activity

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Jinbao Huang from the State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilisation, Anhui Agricultural University, for providing the chemical composition of dried green tea powder. The authors thank Grace F. Boni from Southwest University for helping us edited the grammar.

Ethical approval

All the experimental protocols involving care, handling, and treatment of broilers were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui, China. The permission number is No. SYDW-P2018110702.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by National Innovative Training Programme for College Student [201810364057, 201810364059], Major Scientific and Technological Special Project in Anhui Province [18030701174] and Key Natural Science Research Project in Universities of Anhui Province [KJ2018A0951].