Egg Powder Processing

Throughout history, eggs have been a critical part of food processing, especially in the bakery industry.

It’s no secret that eggs are very delicate and extremely prone to breaking. The sensitivity of eggs to

humidity, temperature and transport prompted the development of auxiliary methods of storage. While

freezing eggs was contemplated, powdered egg is the most common form.

In order to turn eggs into the powdered form, they are sent in batches to be broken and separated from

the shells. They then undergo a pasteurization routine to slow microbial growth, where the yolk is boiled

at 149oF for a period of 6-15 minutes, depending on the requirement of the process/egg quality.

The egg pulp is then sent into a spray dryer to yield dried powder. The spray dryer consists of a feed-

unit, an atomizer to distribute the feed into small droplets and a jet of dry hot air.

The hot air is fed into the drying chamber via a highly pressurized duct. Hot air is produced using indirect

air heaters due to the fact that indirect heaters heat the process stream without contamination by

products of combustion. The combined action of the feed, atomizer and hot air yields powdered egg.

There are various benefits of turning eggs into powdered form. First, because the powdered egg is

smaller in volume than the whole egg, more eggs can be transported at one time. Also, this form is

resistant to breaking and any climatic changes, so storage and long distance delivery is no longer an

issue. Powdered egg can be used to make omelets and to bake cakes, ice-cream, and so-on with equal

ease.

For more information on indirect air heaters for egg powder processing, please call 513-367-9300 or visit

Stelter & Brinck at http://www.stelterbrinck.com/indirect-fired-air-heaters.htm

Key words: Egg Powder Processing, spray drying, powdered egg, indirect air heater, eggs, stelter and

brinck, indirect fired heat