Texture of egg gels induced by high hydrostatic pressure

Egg yolk, egg white and whole egg samples were placed under high hydrostatic pressure in the range 410 to 690 MPa for several processing times between 1 and 30 min. Egg yolk samples gelled completely over 410 MPa, while egg white and whole egg formed hard gels over 620 MPa. Heat-induced gels showed greater gel strength and hardness than did pressure-induced gels. In general, increasing the pressure and treatment times resulted in higher gel strength and hardness values. In the case of egg yolk it was observed that at the highest pressures (650-690 MPa) and processing times exceeding 15 min the gels collapsed in many cases. The pressure-induced egg yolk and whole egg gels showed lower luminosity than heat-induced gels, but were more reddish. The egg white gel luminosity did not show significant differences for different pressures and processing times.