Can eggs replace additives? The next opportunity for clean labels is hidden in egg products

Source: Eurof Foods

In recent years, consumer focus on additives has been rising, and “clean labels” have become a hot trend in the food industry. Many products have gained market recognition thanks to clean labels. This article does not discuss the pros and cons of additives but focuses on the functional value of eggs and explores how to better leverage their natural advantages.

Eggs are a well-known high-nutrition ingredient, while there is no unified definition of egg products. Broadly, products primarily made from eggs can be collectively called egg products, even including fresh shell eggs; traditional processed items such as marinated eggs, hard-boiled eggs, and soft-boiled eggs also fall under the category of egg products.

The modern egg products discussed in this article are an industry that has developed alongside the rising demands for food safety, mainly referring to innovative products that use eggs as raw materials or serve as food processing ingredients. Typical egg products include egg liquid, ice eggs, egg powder, and various newly developed products with functional modifications, such as ready-to-drink protein beverages.

The rise of modern egg products stems from an emphasis on food safety, primarily targeting the control of foodborne Salmonella. Salmonella is a significant factor in foodborne hazards, and a considerable portion of foodborne Salmonella incidents is related to eggs, with reports stating that 40% of foodborne Salmonella infections are associated with eggs.

Therefore, developed countries require eggs to undergo specialized processing, and food companies using eggs must utilize processed egg products instead of directly using shell eggs from farms, thus forming the egg product processing industry.

Among various egg products, pasteurized liquid egg has significant implications for the egg product industry and its users due to its functionality being close to that of shell eggs, leading to substantial development in the egg product industry. As the egg product processing industry has formed and developed, competition has intensified. Relevant companies are not satisfied with simple sterilization processing for safety; they focus on exploring the functionalities and application expansions of egg products, which also promotes the development and technological advancement of the egg product processing industry.

The primary goal of egg product processing is to break the transmission chain of Salmonella, making pasteurization the core processing technology. The production of egg products has achieved continuous separation and processing, allowing for the utilization of many functions while ensuring safety, thus increasing application value.

Eurof Foods from Denmark has over 80 years of development history and has accumulated profound experience in the research and application of egg products. At the recently concluded FIC2026 China International Food Additives and Ingredients Exhibition, Eurof Foods presented a thematic sharing titled “Functional Value and Application Expansion of Egg Products,” and the following are the core insights shared during the conference.

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Core Functional Characteristics of Egg Products

1. Emulsification:

Eggs are rich in lecithin and proteins, which give them excellent emulsifying properties. Importantly, they are an ideal combination of natural macromolecular and small molecular emulsifiers, exhibiting unique emulsifying effects.

2. Gelation and Water Retention:

The proteins in eggs have the property of gelation upon heating, meaning they form stable gels at certain temperatures, which can maintain their gel structure even at elevated temperatures. This is significant for improving texture and water retention.

3. Oil Absorption:

Eggs have a high oil absorption capacity due to their macromolecular proteins, and altering and adjusting this property is significant for processing. Natural eggs have complex functionalities that are relatively difficult to utilize. Processed products can change oil absorption through separation and post-processing, thus achieving greater application.

4. Foaming:

Foaming is one of the most utilized functional properties of eggs in applications. The well-known cake-making process leverages the whipping capability of egg whites, and nougat and macarons also utilize the foaming properties of egg whites.

5. Flavor Characteristics:

Flavor is an indispensable core attribute of eggs in applications, as well as an important advantage for compatibility with various foods.

6. Nutritional Characteristics:

High nutritional value is a fundamental property of eggs and a key prerequisite for their core application value.

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Processing Technology Empowerment: Delving into the Functional Value of Egg Products

Currently, the processing of egg products (egg powder/egg liquid) is in a relatively pure state—according to regulations, no additives are allowed during processing. This presents challenges for egg product manufacturers that differ from other categories while creating unique opportunities. By combining physical processing with biological treatments, egg products can be endowed with stronger functional properties.

1. Separation and Recombination:

Modern egg product processing easily achieves the separation and recombination of yolk and egg white, which can change product performance by obtaining pure egg white liquid through separation, ensuring stable foaming and gelation.

The earliest application case involved blending to obtain an egg liquid product that achieves better foaming performance in Sachima. Today, a classic product is egg tart liquid, which has advanced beyond earlier blending; in addition to designing the proportions of yolk and whole egg according to product needs, sugar (sugar yolk) has been added, and even dairy products (milk, cream) have been included (in egg tart liquid).

2. Utilization of Gelation:

The proteins in eggs exhibit gelation properties, and the separation of egg white, whole egg, and yolk during processing yields products with varying gelation capacities. The main utilization point is in utilizing the gelation properties of egg white products, which primarily consist of proteins (over 90% content), with controllable performance.

Quality improvement of flour-based products mainly utilizes the good solubility of egg white at room temperature, while the gelation temperature is lower than the gelatinization temperature of starch, thus playing a role in stabilizing structure. Pudding preparation utilizes the gelation and flavor of egg yolk.

3. Advanced Post-Processing Technologies:

In post-processing, egg white liquid can be spray-dried to obtain egg white powder, which can then be further heated in an oven to achieve better foaming and stronger gel strength.

Enzymatic modification and biological fermentation: Proteolytic enzymes can enhance the heat resistance of egg products, allowing them to be used in ambient temperature beverages. Phospholipase can improve the emulsification and emulsifying stability of yolk lecithin, while peroxidase/flavor enzymes can enhance product flavor, lactic acid fermentation can impart flavor, and yeast fermentation can improve product color stability.

Preparing emulsified systems conventionally requires emulsifiers, so using yolk products or whole egg products in salad dressings/mayonnaise is classic. Another scenario that’s not easily associated is the quality improver for baked goods.

SSL/CSL is a commonly used quality improver for bread and cakes, primarily based on the principle that these two are linear emulsifiers. The molecular structure of lecithin shows significant differences from SSL, and its inferior performance is expected. However, after lecithin is treated with phospholipase, the molecular structure of the product becomes similar to SSL, thus exhibiting similar properties. Japan was the first to use heat-stable yolk (i.e., phospholipase-modified yolk products) for baking to replace SSL/CSL as a quality improver for bread.

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Egg Products as Additive Replacements, Adapting to Clean Label Trends

1. Replacing Phosphates for Water Retention in Shrimp

Using RS egg white powder can replace phosphates to maintain moisture, with the following comparative tests:

From the table, it can be seen that using RS egg white powder as a moisture-retaining agent in shrimp steaming tests confirmed that it can achieve water retention effects comparable to phosphates.

2. Water Retention and Quality Improvers in Meat Products

Experiments confirmed that in beef meatball systems, using both phosphates and HG egg white powder resulted in beef meatballs with HG egg white powder, which demonstrated a higher bounce height and a more springy texture when the dosage was sufficient compared to those made with phosphates.

3. Common Quality Improvers for Flour Products and the Replaceability of Egg Products

Potassium carbonate is commonly used in flour products to improve cooking resistance and toughness. Experiments showed that in noodles and dumpling skins, adding 3-5% of AD egg white powder can achieve the effect of potassium carbonate.

Reports suggest that adding egg white powder can improve the gluten strength of flour products. However, this report lacks basis according to measurements, and the presumed mechanism is related to the denaturation temperature of egg white, which occurs around 60°C, lower than the gelatinization temperature of starch (65-85°C). Due to the priority coagulation of egg white, it fixes the gluten structure, encapsulating the starch and moisture within, thus maintaining the texture of gluten, improving the quality of flour products, and preventing soupiness (starch leakage from the structure). The absence of alkali also helps protect the color of flour products.

Different egg products exhibit slight variations in quality improvement for flour products. Using egg white liquid significantly improves cooking resistance; using HG egg white powder enhances texture while improving cooking resistance; and using AD egg white powder achieves a springy yet not hard texture for flour products.

4. Ice Cream Returns to Natural, Using Egg Products to Replace Emulsifying Stabilizers

In the past, egg yolk powder was used in ice cream, primarily due to the emulsification properties of lecithin in egg yolk. During the period of rapid development in additive applications, eggs were pushed out by emulsifying stabilizers in ice cream.

Later, as people pursued natural ingredients, eggs returned to ice cream, but not in a simple repeat; there are now more choices. People can opt for yolks, whole eggs, egg yolk powder, or whole egg powder, thus giving products new characteristics.

The impact of different egg products on ice cream flavor can be observed from the flavor diagram.

Adding egg products can significantly improve flavor retention and mouthfeel while reducing oiliness; this impact is even more pronounced in low-milk formulations.

For those who enjoy egg flavors, yolk products are preferred; for products requiring only emulsification, whole egg products are more suitable when egg flavor is merely a base flavor. Additionally, for products that require high smoothness, egg liquid is better than egg powder.

Conventional ice cream is typically made with yolks and whole eggs, primarily leveraging their emulsifying properties and flavor. Recently, low-fat ice cream can utilize egg white products; on one hand, proteins also possess a certain degree of emulsifying properties, and when the fat content is low, the emulsifying properties of proteins are sufficient to meet requirements; on the other hand, the shape retention properties of proteins are also significant for maintaining the texture of the products.

5. Should Pudding Use Gelling Agents or Eggs?

Pudding is a classic dessert, traditionally made with eggs (yolk or whole egg). With the development of the additive industry, people have started using gelling agents to make pudding, resulting in a significant reduction in egg usage, to the point where many are unaware that eggs can still be used to make pudding, or believe that only egg pudding requires eggs, and even egg-flavored pudding can be made without eggs.

After the emergence of the egg product industry, using standardized egg products is more convenient and efficient than manually separating eggs, and they provide better flavor and texture. The method of using egg products as gelling agents requires heating to solidify and then cooling to set, while using gelling agents involves heating and casting to solidify, thus taking different processing routes. Pudding made with egg products can be served hot, which is incomparable with gelling agents.

6. New Explorations for Quality Improvement Agents in Baked Goods Such as Bread

In baked goods like bread, to inhibit starch aging, glycerol esters or SSL/CSL are commonly used as quality improvers for bread, which have played a good role in the past.

From a property perspective, SSL/CSL is a linear emulsifier, and its primary mechanism is to stabilize the structure of starch, inhibiting the association of starch molecules by forming a complex structure with them, thereby improving quality. It was also found early on that adding eggs to formulations improves quality, but not as significantly as SSL/CSL.

Japanese scientists were the first to discover that modified yolk could achieve effects similar to SSL/CSL. Further research found that this was mainly because the technology of modified yolk changed the molecular structure of yolk lecithin from a Y-type to a linear type, thus exhibiting properties akin to SSL/CSL.

This application has been implemented in Japan, and there have been promotional efforts by Japanese technicians in China, but acceptance was not high, possibly due to insufficient emphasis on the reduction of additives during the promotion. Today, we are once again presented with a good opportunity for application.

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Conclusion

In the context of clean labels becoming a mainstream trend in the industry, the diverse functionalities of egg products provide food production companies and downstream applications with new solutions.

In-depth research and reasonable utilization of the functional characteristics of egg products can meet consumers’ demands for natural health, achieve product innovation and industry upgrades, and create a win-win situation for all parties involved.