A comprehensive review on salted eggs: quality formation mechanisms, innovative pickling technologies and value-added applications

Salted eggs are very popular in China for their pleasant flavor and texture. However, the long production cycle of traditional pickling with uncontrollable quality limit their industrialization. The high salt content in salted egg white (SEW) and problems such as hard core and black circle in salted egg yolk (SEY) significantly hinder the sustainable development of the salted egg production industry. This paper reviews the entire process of salted egg production, including salting, post-curing, cooking, and preservation, to fully explore the mechanisms of quality formation. The application of rapid processing, such as physical treatment and chemical additives, to reduce the salt content of SEW and enhance the quality of SEY is elaborated. Besides, the preference for SEY flavor leads to a great waste of SEW with high salt content lacking in foaming ability and low viscosity. Therefore, value-added SEY application as functional ingredients and converting the wastage of higher salt content SEW into valuable products are discussed in this paper. It will provide valuable information to improve processing efficiency, enhance the quality of salted eggs and promote the development of high-value-added and environmentally friendly nutritional egg products. Salted eggs are very popular in China for their pleasant flavor and texture.