MVSc

An investigation was carried out at the Department of
Poultry Science, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences,
Mannuthy to assess the shelf life of vinegar, oil based quail egg



pickle with and without potassium sorbate.


The quali ty



characteristics of the product packed In HDPE pouches as
influenced by the. period of ambient storage was evaluated at
monthly intervals.
The mean weight of raw quail eggs used for pickling was
10.94 ± 0.02 g and that of cooked and peeled eggs was 9. 15 ±
0.06g. Therefore the cooking yield was found to be 83.63 ± 0.02
per cent.
The product was stored for a period of 120 days and it was
found that it was acceptable up to 90 days. The control and
treatment groups were evaluated In terms of qualitative parameters
namely pH, proximate composition, oxidative rancidity (TBARS
number), total viable count of mesophilic bacteria, yeast and
mould count and organoleptic qualities.
It was observed that during the period of study, from the
day of production to 90 days of storage, the pll of quail egg
pickle increased significantly (P s 0.01) from 3.60 ± 0.01 to 4.76
± 0.01 for the control group and 3.59 ± 0.01 to 4.73 ± 0.01 for
the treatment group, respectively. Though there was no significant
difference between the two groups, within the same period of

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storage, the proximate composition of the pickle was significantly
(P ~ 0.01) affected irrespective of the treatments. There was a
gradual but significant (P ~ 0.01) increase in 2-thiobarbituric
acid reactive substance (TBARS) number in both the groups, during
storage. The treatment group showed statistically lower TBARS
numbers at 60 and 90 days of storage, when compared to the
control.
The total viable count In both the groups increased
significantly (P ~ 0.01) during storage but were well within the
acceptable limit up to 90 days. There was no significant
difference between the control and treatment groups, even though
the treatment group had comparatively lower values throughout the
storage period. The freshly prepared pickle did not have any yeast
or mould population. There was a gradual and significant (P~ 0.01)
increase in the yeast and mould count with the progress in storage
period, however, significantly (P~ 0.05) lower counts were
detected in the treatment group at 30, 60 and 90 days of storage.
In the case of organoleptic evaluation, the mean panel
scores for flavour were 5.50, 5.72, 5.14 and 4.83 respectively for
the control group on zero, 30, 60 and 90 days of storage. The
corresponding values for the treatment group were 5.67, 6.00,5.33
and 5.00, respectively. On working out the cost of production of
pickle, it was found to be quite economical. The cost of





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kilogram of quail egg pickle was Rs. 74. 39 and Rs. 74. 72,
respectively for the control and treatment groups.
Henceforth it was concluded that nutritious, tasty and ready
to eat quail egg pickle could be prepared w i th vinegar, g i ngelly
oil and potassium sorbate, packed in HDPR pouches and stored
safely for a period of 90 days at ambient temperature.
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