Egg Quality

The egg is a foodstuff with an appealing nutritional value characterised by a perfect balance in its amino acid composition, unrivalled diversity of its nutrients and its modest price.
Egg production increased in Europe until 2000 then stabilised, mainly due to uncertainties raised by new European regulations on animal welfare and the sanitary protection of eggs. However, world production has doubled in twenty years, reaching a thousand billion eggs in 2008!
This special issue of the INRA Animal Production journal compiles the main information on genetics, livestock rearing, nutrition and hygiene behind the outstanding quantitative and qualitative advances in egg production over the last thirty years. It describes the spectacular progress in knowledge of this product due mainly to the development of molecular biology techniques. It also attempts to correct misconceptions on the risks linked to its high cholesterol levels.
The egg will in the future remain a dominant animal protein source in the world and the acquisition of recently-updated data on the function of its many constituent parts should boost its appeal for human health.