EGG YOLK FRACTIONATION

Abstract

Liquid egg yolk can be fractionated into water soluble and precipitated lipophilic fractions without the need to freeze or add carbohydrate(s). A composition that includes egg yolk and an excess of water has its pH downwardly adjusted before being gravitationally separated into low and high density fractions, with the former including no more than 5% of the granules from the egg yolk.

Claims

1. A method for fractionating liquid egg yolk into water soluble and precipitated lipophilic fractions, said method comprising: a) introducing to a composition that comprises egg yolk and purified water, the volume of said water being from 1 to 10 times the volume of said egg yolk, sufficient food grade acid so as to decrease the pH of said composition to from 4 to 6, thereby providing a pH-adjusted composition, and b) without freezing or adding carbohydrate thereto, gravitationally separating said pH-adjusted composition into water soluble and precipitated lipophilic fractions, wherein less than 5% (w/w) of the granules from said egg yolk are present in said water soluble fraction, each step of said method being conducted at a temperature of from 0 to 60 C.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said liquid egg yolk comprises raw egg yolk.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said liquid egg yolk consists of raw egg yolk.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said liquid egg yolk comprises reconstituted egg yolk.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said liquid egg yolk consists of reconstituted egg yolk.

6. (canceled)

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said purified water has a metal ion concentration no greater than 50 ppm.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said composition is agitated prior to and during introduction of said food grade acid.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the pH of said pH-adjusted composition is from 5.0 to 5.6.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein each step of said method is conducted at a temperature of no more than 30 C.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein each step of said method is conducted at a temperature of no more than 25 C.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein each step of said method is conducted at a temperature of no more than 30 C.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein each step of said method is conducted at a temperature of no more than 25 C.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said gravitational separation involves centrifugation.

15. A process for fractionating liquid egg yolk into water soluble and precipitated lipophilic fractions, said method comprising: a) introducing to a composition that comprises egg yolk and purified water, the volume of said water being from 1 to 10 times the volume of said egg yolk, sufficient of food grade acid so as to decrease the pH of said composition to from 5.0 to 5.6, thereby providing a pH-adjusted composition, and b) without freezing or adding carbohydrate thereto, gravitationally separating said pH-adjusted composition into water soluble and precipitated lipophilic fractions, wherein less than 5% (w/w) of the granules from said egg yolk are present in said water soluble fraction, each step of said method being conducted at a temperature of from 0 to 25 C.

16. The process of claim 15 wherein said liquid egg yolk comprises raw egg yolk.

17. The process of claim 15 wherein said liquid egg yolk consists of raw egg yolk.

18. The process of claim 15 wherein said liquid egg yolk consists of reconstituted egg yolk.

19. The process of claim 15 wherein said composition is agitated prior to and during introduction of said food grade acid.

20. The process of claim 15 wherein said purified water has a metal ion concentration no greater than 50 ppm.

21. The process of claim 20 wherein metal ion concentration is no greater than 25 ppm.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

[0018] None of the steps involved in the processes summarily described above need to be conducted at supra-ambient temperatures. The entireties of the processes are conducted such that the liquids involved do not encounter temperatures of 0 C. or less and no more than the temperature at which egg yolk proteins begin to coagulate, i.e., 60 C. In most embodiments, each step of the method is conducted at a temperature of no more than 50 C., no more than 45 C., and even no more than 40 C.; an exemplary maximum temperature is 37 C. Generally, the processes are performed so that the liquids encounter no temperatures outside the range of 0 to 35 C., with preferred maximum temperatures being on the order of no more than 30 C., no more than 27.5 C., no more than 25 C., no more than 22.5 C., no more than 20 C., and even no more than 15 C. Food safety considerations typically argue for conducting the process at or near refrigerated temperatures, e.g., 0.5 to 5 C.

[0019] The processes employ a composition that includes egg yolk and water.

[0020] Because the process is scalable, being limited only by the size of equipment available and structures in which to house or shelter such equipment, the amounts of each component are described herein in terms of relative volumes. Although any amount of composition can be employed in the process, operational efficiencies argue for usage of quantities measured on the scale of at least liters and preferably decaliters, hectoliters, or even megaliters.

[0021] The composition includes at least as much water (by volume) as egg yolk and often includes an excess of water. Generally, the volume ratio of water to egg yolk ranges from 1:1 to 10:1, with exemplary ratios including 10:9, 8:7, 5:4, 4:3, 3:2, 2:1, 5:2, 3:1, 8:3, 7:2, 4:1, 9:2, 5:1, 6:1 and 7:1. (Also contemplated are ranges defined by combinations of two of the foregoing ratios.) Operational efficiencies typically are achieved by keeping the excess of water as close as possible to the 2 lower limit.

[0022] The egg yolk employed in the composition can be liquid from a whole egg, preferably from hen eggs, or reconstituted. If the latter is employed directly, the amount of water employed in the composition must be upwardly adjusted by an appropriate amount to account for reconstitution. Alternatively, reconstitution can be done prior to introducing the egg yolk component into the composition, with such reconstitution being performed in the vessel employed for the mixing step (described below) or in a separate vessel from which the reconstituted egg yolk is pumped or otherwise transferred to the mixing vessel. In another embodi-ment, reconstitution can occur in a semi-batch or continuous manner by combining separate streams of appropriately metered amounts of dried egg yolk and water.

[0023] Although pasteurized egg yolk can be employed, the egg yolk preferably is not pasteurized, homogenized, or previously processed in a high shear mixture. Raw hen egg yolk is preferred.

[0024] Some sources of water might be sufficiently pure to permit usage of water from a nearby well or water treatment facility. Use of purified water (e.g., deionized or distilled) is preferred in those areas having water that contains significant amounts of alkali, alkali earth, or transition metal ions, however. The water component of the composition preferably has a metal ion concentration of no more than 250 ppm, preferably no more than 125 ppm, more preferably no more than 75 ppm, even more preferably no more than 50 ppm, and most preferably no more than 25 ppm.

[0025] Again, water can be added to the vessel employed for the mixing step (described below) in a batch, semi-batch or continuous manner, depending on the available equipment.

[0026] The composition typically is mixed or otherwise gently agitated so as to be macro-scopically homogenous. Natural emulsifiers in egg yolk permit the hydrophobic subcomponents to mix well with the excess of water.

[0027] Unless the water source employed is unusually acidic, the egg yolk-water mixture generally will be only slightly acidic. Prior to the gravitational separation process described below, the pH of the composition is downwardly adjusted by addition of food grade acid. This can be done by addition of the acid to the agitated mixture, vice versa, or a combination, i.e., addition of the egg yolk-water mixture to a mixing vessel already containing some acid followed by sufficient additional acid to bring the adjusted mixture down to the targeted pH. In processes conducted in a semi-batch or continuous fashion, acid can be delivered in aliquots, discontinuous stream or continuous stream. Additionally, the acid can be added as a solid (typically in powder form) or diluted in water to provide an acid solution.

[0028] Potentially useful acids include strong acids, such as HCl and H.sub.2SO.sub.4, and weak acids including, but not limited to, phosphoric acid and any of a variety of carboxylic acids such as citric, malic, propanoic, sorbic and acetic acids.

[0029] Sufficient acid is added to provide a composition of from 4pH6, preferably from 4.5pH5.8, more preferably from 4.7pH5.7, and even more preferably from 5.0pH5.6. pH can be measured in a variety of ways including, for example, an appropriately calibrated pH sensor.

[0030] Operational efficiencies argue against significant mixing/agitation after the target pH is reached. Nevertheless, further mixing/agitation is not excluded from the process.

[0031] Upon the pH of the composition being downwardly adjusted, some or all of the composition (depending on the manner in which the process is conducted) is subjected to one or more gravitational separation techniques. Although the composition can be allowed to sit quiescently until fractionation occurs, operational considerations generally argue for employing mechanical means such as a clarifier, separator, decanter or centrifuge, with the latter being particularly preferred. In some embodiments, multiple centrifuging steps can be conducted in series. Depending on the gravitational force resulting from the mechanical devices employed, the amount of time involved in the separation step can range from a few seconds to several days, generally from 10 to 100,000 seconds, typically from 20 to 40,000 seconds, and most typically from 30 to 3000 seconds. In commercial scale applications, the gravitational separation step preferably takes no more than 60 seconds.

[0032] Advantageously, the separation into water soluble and precipitated lipophilic fractions requires neither a freezing step nor addition of a carbohydrate such as an alginate. For an example of a process employing a freezing step, the interested reader is directed to P. Hodek et al., Optimized Protocol of Chicken Antibody (IgY) Purification Providing Electrophor-etically Homogeneous Preparation, Intl. J. Electochem. Sci., vol. 8, pp. 113-24 (2013). For an example of a process employing addition of a carbohydrate, see S. Hwee Tan et al, A novel, cost-effective and efficient chicken egg IgY purification procedure, J. Immunolog. Methods, vol. 380, pp. 73-76 (2012).

[0033] Regardless of the gravitational separation technique employed, the pH adjusted composition separates into water soluble and precipitated lipophilic fractions. The water soluble fraction is, in large part, lipoprotein-free (or at least substantially lipoprotein-free) plasma, while the precipitated lipophilic fraction includes the vast majority of the aforementioned granules. The separation is carried out such that no more than 5%, preferably no more than 4%, more preferably no more than 3%, even more preferably no more than 2%, and most preferably no more than 1% of the granules apportion into the water soluble fraction, thereby resulting in the vast majority, even substantially all, of such granules locating in the lipophilic fraction.

[0034] Each of the two fractions contains components which are commercially valuable and, advantageously, are present in forms which facilitate further processing and separation.

[0035] The foregoing description has employed certain terms and phrases for the sake of brevity, clarity, and ease of understanding; no unnecessary limitations are to be implied there-from because such terms are used for descriptive purposes and are intended to be broadly con-strued. The relevant portion(s) of any patent or publication specifically mentioned in the foregoing description is or are incorporated herein by reference.

[0036] The foregoing compositions and methods have been presented by way of example only. Certain features of the described compositions and methods may have been described in connection with only one or a few such compositions or methods, but they should be considered as being useful in other such compositions or methods unless their structure or use is incapable of adaptation for such additional use. Also contemplated are combinations of features described in isolation.