Optical luminescent properties of eggs

Relevance. Optical photoluminescent properties of poultry eggs can serve as indicators of their quality both for incubation processes and for food technology processes. At the initial stage, it is important to evaluate the spectral characteristics of excitation and luminescence, as well as the parameters of table and incubation eggs of different quality and with different shell color.Methods. Chicken eggs of Chinese silk and Hysex brown crosses, as well as samples of duck, goose and quail eggs were used for research. The measurements were carried out on a diffraction spectrofluorimeter “Fluorat02-Panorama” with built-in software “Panorama Pro”. The obtained spectral characteristics were used to calculate the energy (integral absorption capacity and luminescence flux, spectrum energy) and statistical parameters (expectation, variance, asymmetry, kurtosis), as well as the Stokes shift.Results. Photoluminescent properties of poultry eggs are manifested in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum. Qualitatively, the spectra of different species of domestic birds are similar with a slight difference in the Stokes shift. For fertilized chicken eggs, the photoluminescence flux is 2.7 times greater than that of unfertilized eggs, while the spread of values for unfertilized eggs is 5.6 times less. Spectrum parameters such as asymmetry and kurtosis differ significantly for the luminescence of dark and light-shell chicken eggs. For table eggs, the integral energy parameters are 2.8–3.1 times greater than those of incubation eggs.