Quality and shell integrity of Japanese quail eggs: an assessment during storage and at market

Rearing of Japanese quail ( Coturnix coturnix japonica ) has created an emerging interest in recent years among the small-scale poultry farmers in Sri Lanka, and is becoming a commercial venture in the alternative poultry industry. Thus, assessment was done on quality variation of Japanese quail eggs during the storage with different methods of packaging at room temperature. In the first experiment, a total of 120 eggs from the same flock were stored using three methods, i.e. with paper boxes filled with paddy husks, plastic egg cartons and without package at the room temperature. The egg quality during storage was assessed using egg weight, shell thickness, shape index, yolk colour, yolk index, Haugh unit and egg weight loss at weekly intervals in a complete randomize design with three replicates. In the second experiment, one hundred Japanese quail eggs collected from five market outlets were used to evaluate the shell integrity. The results were analyzed using Analysis of Variance and descriptive statistics in the two experiments. The results revealed that the egg weight, yolk colour, yolk index and Haugh unit were significantly decreased (P 0.05). There was a significant (P i.e. minimum quality losses, at room temperature compared to those stored without package. Commercial operations need to pay attention to improve the shell integrity of quail eggs in market chain.