Âé¶¹´«Ã½

Technology

Spotting weak eggs before they crack

11 April 2006

WHETHER it will work on chocolate Easter eggs is unclear. But down on the farm, a new technique could soon help poultry farmers to spot which newly laid eggs will later crack before they get anywhere near the packing plant.

“It’s a major problem,” says Ian Dunn of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, UK, joint head of a team developing the technique. He says that about 10 per cent of eggs are lost through shell breakage.

Cracked eggs cost farmers and packers money, and pose a hazard to consumers because they allow potentially dangerous bacteria to get in, says Dunn,…

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