A Spectrophotometric Method for Detecting Blood in White-Shell Eggs

THE most common defects found in eggs are blood and meat spots. Published data has shown the incidence of such defects to range from less than 1 percent to nearly 100 percent (Halnan and Day, 1935; Van Wagenen et al., 1937; Quinn and Godfrey, 1940; Nalbandov and Card, 1941; Lerner and Smith, 1942; Jeffery and Pino, 1943; Card and Nalbandov, 1944; Jeffrey, 1945; Lerner, 1946; Nalbandov and Card, 1947; Denton, 1947; Lerner and Taylor, 1947). The extent and degree of consumer dissatisfaction created by the presence of blood and meat spots is not known precisely. It seems safe to assume that spots of almost any size that are the color of fresh blood are offensive to many consumers. Blood spots larger than one-eighth inch in diameter or bloody whites can be considered rather generally unacceptable. In the opinion of the authors, it is not safe to assume that “meat” spots . . .