Meat and Blood Spots as a Quality Trait on Table Eggs: Causes and Solutions

Abstract

Eggs are considered one of the most complete foods in the human diet, with their composition particularly rich in vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and excellent biological value proteins. With widespread use in the food industry due to both its nutritional value and functional properties, the production of quality eggs is critical in terms of food safety and therefore consumer health. However, egg quality has different meanings for consumers and consumers' perception of quality varies depending on the purpose of use and their own preferences. One of the most important defects affecting consumer preferences in terms of internal quality characteristics in eggs is meat and/or blood spots. Although the formation of meat and blood spots depends on factors such as the hen age, health status, feeding and management, it also emerges as a hereditary trait, especially in brown layers. According to different production systems, producers try to reduce the formation of meat-blood spots in eggs with management and feeding strategies to alleviate environmental stress. In addition, thanks to the developments in genetics and biotechnology, researchers and breeding companies have started to focus on the genetic background of meat-blood spot inclusions and to identify the genes affecting their formation. In this review, the occurrence and causes of meat-blood spots, one of the internal quality characteristics affecting consumer preferences in table eggs, were explained and suggestions to reduce the incidence were presented.