Egg Grading and Meat Grading Lab

Alyssa Riggio

Research Write Up Monday 3:30

“Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real

wealth, good morals, and happiness.” –Thomas Jefferson. The importance of this experiment is

crucial to society approval and the human population in many ways. By grading the quality of

eggs and meat for consumption, health pre-cautions developed by the USDA are met in order to

deem the product being checked “safe” or “not safe” for humans to eat. This also helps the

population stay healthy by ridding of any bad foods. Grading eggs are divided into two scales but

the one that this experiment is focused on today is “Egg Grades”, divided into AA, A, and B, AA

being the best and B being the worst (Dr. Dan Stein’s Powerpoint). Meat grading is a bit trickier

but in this experiment the measurement of the ribeye area, fat thickness, and quality grade

divided into: modest, small and slight, is all that is needed. These grades and measurements

determine where the products are headed in the grocery store as well as what is on the label of

the container they come in.

Methods and Materials

Starting with the meat grade process, my lab group chose a steak and measured the fat

thickness first using the centimeter side of a ruler and converting it to millimeters. To measure

the fat thickness, measure the trim of back fat between the 12th and 13th rib. In regular terms, this

is about 75% of the way down the ribeye length from the split chine bone. After measuring the

fat thickness, we proceeded to measure the ribeye area. The only materials needed for this is a
measuring grid device. The measure of the ribeye area is expressed in square inches and each

square on the grid is .5”. Therefore, we placed the grid on the cut of beef and counted only the

cubes in the red area (muscle not fat). After taking both measurements, we determined quality

grade by identifying how much marbling was distributed through the muscle of the ribeye.

Choosing from moderately abundant, slightly abundant, moderate, modest, small, and slight,

each choice has a different content of intramuscular fat.

Moving on to the egg candling process, this deals with the egg grading. We were given 5

eggs and labeled each one to five so that when recording data each egg’s information did not get

confused with another. By viewing the eggs one by one in a dark room with a green shaded light

behind it, the air pocket of the egg is viewable if the bottom of the egg is facing up. The air

pocket determines the grade of the egg. If the pocket is larger, the grade is lower. AA grade

being dime sized, A grade being nickel sized, and B grade being quarter sized. To further

examine the eggs, they are brought over to the next station where the eggs are weighed. The

weight determines the labeled sizing of small, medium, large, extra-large or jumbo. Next three

out of five of the eggs are cracked onto a large sheet of waxed paper and a pen is used to outline

each egg after they are cracked. Making sure to label each outline to correlate what outline goes

with what egg. This is useful later for measuring the surface area. Then the albumin

thickness/height is measured in millimeters. After measuring the albumen, the color is measured

by the color chart tabs and matching up the colors, and recording the number correlated. After,

the eggs are cleared off the wax paper and all that is left is the outline of each labeled egg. Each

outline needs to be measured based off of the grid device. This is important because it

determines another factor into the data base of egg grading by showing exactly how “runny” or

“loose” the egg is.

 Results

The meat grading of steak #4 results consist of a few aspects. The fat thickness measured

of the cut of beef is measured as 3.2cm which was transferred to the correct measurement of 32

mm. The grading identified of this piece of meat is modest based off of the amount of marbling

distribution viewed.

The egg candling station allowed us to have a different set of findings. Egg #1 when

viewed under the green shaded lamp, had a quarter sized air pocket. This means egg #1 has a “B”

grade. Egg #2 had a much smaller air pocket about the size of a dime; which deems #2 as a

“AA” grade. As a coincidence, Egg #3 was also a “AA” grade with a dime sized air chamber. On

the opposite side of the spectrum, Egg #4’s “B” grade was because of a quarter sized air pocket.

Lastly, Egg #5 being the only nickel sized air pocket, had a grade of “A”.

The data of the weighing station determined Egg #1-5 labeled sizes.

Egg # Weight (grams) Labeled Size

1 40.63 small

2 49.8 medium

3 52.994 medium

4 53.001 medium

5 71.3 jumbo

Cracking Egg #1, Egg #2, and Egg #5 helps to determine the height/thickness of the

albumin. Egg #1’s albumin was measured as a 2.5mm, Egg #2’s being 2.5mm, and Egg #5’s

being 2.3. Based on the color tabs given, Egg #1 and #2 were both 7’s on the scale. Egg #5 was

determined as a color of 8, being relatively close to both Egg #1 and Egg #2. Surface area also
being determined by the cracking of the eggs differs because of how loose/tight each white of the

egg was. Egg #5 deemed the loosest egg, has a surface area of 23sq” based off the grid device

used. Egg #1 being a medium amount of runniness, has a surface area of 21sq”. The tightest egg

being Egg #2 has a measurement of 19sq”.

Discussions and Conclusions

In reality, the importance of this experiment is key to the knowledge of humans as well as

society as a whole because of the effects that the poultry and meat industry has on the world.

From the farm to the grocery store to the table, each product is classified differently. By being

able to identify all of these variables, there is a better knowledge base to have the ability to

understand what one may choose when shopping at the grocery store. This experiment not only

displays an example of usefulness however it also opens up new topics of research. For instance,

the similarity between the surface area of the eggs could relate directly to the color of each egg

which relates to the quality. Overall, It’s useful to be able to discuss and explain the grading and

labeling of both products and the process it takes to create the exact label that one may see on the

egg carton or meat package in the grocery store.

References

 ANSI 1124 – Poultry Commodity Grading Lab. (Powerpoint) . Dr. Dan Stein. (2016).