Malaysia Veterinary Forum (Archive)

Dr. TanDY · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 7:07 pm Post subject: Egg Substitutes? Anyone?

Found this article from

Radio Singapore International

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What happens if Singapore faces an egg shortage in the event of an avian influenza pandemic?

Avian influenza has posed a challenge to the poultry industries in Malaysia and Indonesia, two of the countries where Singapore imports its egg supply.

For local food industries that are dependent on eggs for its production, an avian influenza pandemic in our neighboring countries will likely cause an egg shortage.

And the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore, or AVA has been taking measures to ensure that other forms of eggs are available to the food industries and consumers.

We're looking at egg substitutes like powder egg and liquid egg.

The AVA and Singapore's Temasek Polytechnic conducted a special workshop recently.

On the agenda was a cake making demonstration which taught participants about the use of egg substitutes.

Ms Lau Kum-Yee is a Lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic's Diploma of Applied Food Science and Nutrition.

She first describes the texture of the two egg substitutes.

LKY: For dried egg powder, for now, the AVA has approved sources from China as well as Denmark, and for liquid egg, we do have a company in Singapore that is pasteurizing and packaging it for the local markets. Powder egg tends to have a stronger, eggy taste. So if you are using powder egg, let's say you have a whole egg powder, you will have to use one part of the powder to three parts of water. So if you need 100 grams of egg in your recipe, you will take 25 grams of the whole egg powder, and you add 75 grams of water to it. For liquid egg, it is much easier. You can directly substitute that is needed equal to what is required of fresh eggs. The liquid is yellowish in color and packed in a carton similar to a milk carton, so this is what you will buy to bring home and they should refrigerate it.

While Kum Yee assures that egg substitutes like powder egg or liquid egg do not differ that much from the real mccoy, she adds that both substitutes are very easy to manage in cooking.

LKY: For powder eggs, you have to reconstitute or re-hydrate it and then leave it for 15 minutes for the water to be absorbed into the water. And you can use it for your chawanmushi (Japanese steamed egg), your quiche. The only problem is that it much just be a little bit more eggy so you might want to dilute it more if you need to. In institutions like the hotels, they usually prefer to use liquid eggs because you save the trouble of beating up the eggs, as well as to crack the shells. So they just pour it out and they can make egg omelet or scrambled eggs.

And the best thing that comes with some of these egg substitutes is the cost difference is really not that much.

LKY: So to them in the bakeries or in the industries, they do without shelled eggs which saves them the trouble of salmonella issues. For liquid eggs, it is more expensive when it comes to fresh eggs right now. But as more and more people use it because of the economies of scale, it is likely that the price will come down. As for dried eggs, because of the reconstitution, you have to add water to it, so you save the trouble of storing excess eggs because this egg powder is without water. So you save space, and you can leave the egg powder at room temperature, you do not have to refrigerate your eggs in that sense. So this saves you energy as well. This will make it cheaper for the industries in the long run. As for the household consumers, it might not be such a big difference.

And that was Ms Lau Kum-Yee sharing the advantages of using egg alternatives.

lcs · Joined: 05 Jul 2006 Posts: 65

is it safe to eat the "egg powder"?? any unsafe substances inside the egg powder?

Dr. TanDY · Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 6:57 pm Post subject:

I think it is safe to eat. But how does it taste like? I do not know :-)

Dr Piggy · Joined: 10 Feb 2006 Posts: 8

You may not be aware but you are already likely to be consuming
egg white or egg yolk powder or liquid eggs. These are often used by factories making biscuits or cakes where quality control and consistency is important.