Experiments were conducted to determine the effect of relative humidity (R.H.) during storage on egg shell breaking strength, weight loss, and Haugh unit scores of eggs. Results of this experiment indicate that R.H. of the environment in which eggs are stored has a significant effect on egg shell breaking strength. Low R.H. increases egg shell strength, and high R.H. decreases egg shell strength. The process is reversible with egg shell strength dependent on the last environment the eggs were in. Based on work cited by other researchers, the breaking strength change is probably caused by the effect of R.H. on the moisture content of the shell. Storing eggs under controlled R.H. environments can reduce troublesome variability in egg shell strength encountered in research tests. Loss of egg weight during storage is dependent on the R.H. of the ambient environment; the loss is doubled by increasing R.H. from 10 to 85% and is approximately linear with time. R.H. has no significant effect on Haugh unit scores for storage times up to 14 days at 12.8° C.
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LOTT et al. (1976) studied this question.