Contact Ron Brown LSU News Service 504 388-3867 e-mail: [email protected]
or Albert Meier 504 766-2603
BATON ROUGE -- LSU recently received a patent for a method of lowering the cholesterol and fat content of hens' eggs.
The method, developed by retired LSU researcher Albert Meier and graduate student John M. Wilson, involves adding a specific amino acid to the birds' feed.
Previous efforts to reduce cholesterol and fat in eggs included reducing cholesterol in the hens' bloodstream, feeding them diets high in fiber and low in saturated fats and giving them drugs designed to lower their cholesterol levels. None have proven satisfactory.
In general, a hen's egg contains about 215 milligrams of cholesterol and a nearly one-to-one ratio of saturated to unsaturated fats. In tests, the new method reduced cholesterol by more than 25 percent, total fat by 17 percent and saturated fat by more than 25 percent. In addition, the method increased the protein content of egg yolk by 40 percent or more.
Other significant findings of the studies, which were done at LSU during the last five years, were that egg production in the treated hens was equal to or better than egg production in the control group, the number of eggs produced was 5 to 30 percent greater than in the untreated group, depending on the stage of the laying cycle, and the average size of the eggs in the treated birds increased one full grade.
There was also a 10 to 15 percent decrease in feed consumption in the treated hens, so although the hens ate less, they laid more and larger eggs.
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