Mechanisms regulating drug and pesticide residue uptake by egg yolks: development of predictive models

Drug and pesticide residues in edible poultry tissues and eggs are a human food safety concern. Quantifying and predicting the concentrations of residues in eggs is a particular challenge because of the unique aspects of egg development and compartmentalisation of the yolk and white. For a number of years, research efforts have been directed at examining residue incorporation into eggs and developing models to predict residue incursion. This paper will review the physiology of egg yolk formation as it relates to residue incursion, the models developed to understand and quantify residue patterns, and the use of magnetic resonance imaging to detect residue incorporation into eggs.