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History of eggs
Decorating easter eggs

Eggs handling at home

How you can determine freshness of eggs
Storage
Cooking with eggs

Journey of the Egg
It starts with an egg
The barn and the hens
Grading and packaging
 

History of eggs

Ancient cultures celebrated the spring equinox with the gift of red-dyed eggs. The eggs were shared at a meal, and afterwards the shells were crushed, a ritual to drive away winter.

The popularity of the Easter egg tradition reached its height at the court of the Czar of Russia. By the end of 19th century the court jeweler, Carl Fabergé, was making fabulous eggs of gold, crystal, and porcelain. Today, hand-decorated eggs are exchanged as springtime gifts in many cultures and play a very important role in religious ceremonies on Easter morning. Some families carefully save their egg collection, passing them on from generation to generation.

Whether straight out of ancient tradition or mysteriously laid by the Easter Bunny, the decorated egg, be it cooked or raw, full or hollow, made of wood, clay or silver, or of sugar or chocolate, will no doubt remain an undeniable token of friendship and love.

 
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Decorating Easter eggs

As the egg contains the seed of life, it was in many cultures a symbol of fertility, life and resurrection. In connection with the folk tradition it was a custom to paint the eggs. During Easter eggs are gifted to boys and men for whipping and washing girls and women. Over time, the egg became a gift of love, tradition, and even a collection object for many families.

In the section below you can get ideas and inspiration how to decorate your own Easter eggs:

     

    

    

     

     

 
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How you can determine freshness of eggs


The „Best Before Date” is the best way to determine the freshness of an egg. This indicates that the eggs are Grade A quality, as long as they have been properly handled and the date has not passed.

• A grade A egg has a firm white color, a small air cell at the wide end, and a centered yolk.

• Fresh eggs will sink in water while an older egg will float. As an egg ages, the size of the air cell inside increases, causing it to float.

• In a fresh egg, the yolk sits up high, and the white is thick and closely surrounds the yolk. An older egg has a flat yolk that breaks easily and a thin, watery white.

• How do you tell the difference between a raw egg and a hard-boiled egg? Spin it. A hard-boiled egg spins longer than a raw egg. The liquid center in a raw egg prevents it from building up enough momentum to keep turning.

• A cloudy egg white is a sign of freshness, not age: the cloudiness is the result of the high carbon dioxide content when the egg is laid.

 
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Storage


Keep your eggs nice and fresh in the fridge. Keep the eggs in the original box to prevent them from absorbing strong odors and flavors of other foods in the refrigerator (we use “fridge” as slang) through the thousands of tiny pores in the shell.

• Keeping eggs in their box also means the “Best Before” date is visible

• Leftover raw egg whites and yolks should be put in airtight containers and stored in the refrigerator immediately. To prevent yolks from drying out, cover them with a little cold water. Drain the water before using.

• When storing hard-boiled eggs, you may get a "gassy" odor in your refrigerator. The odor is caused by hydrogen sulphide, which forms when eggs are cooked. It is harmless and usually dissipates in a few hours.

 
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Cooking with eggs

When preparing an egg or any perishable food follow these four simple steps to make sure the food is prepared safely:

Clean - Wash hands and surfaces often. Proper hand washing can eliminate nearly half of all cases of food-borne illness.

Chill - Refrigerate or freeze food promptly. Cold temperatures can prevent the growth of most types of harmful bacteria.

• Separate - Do not cross-contaminate food. Keep raw meat/poultry/seafood and their juices separate from one another and other food during storage and preparation.

Cook - Cook meat, poultry and eggs to proper temperatures.

 
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It starts with an egg

The production starts when ProOvo purchases a day old chicken, the day old chickens are produced by partners of ProOvo who holds the parent flocks, a parent flock is a group of hens producing eggs for hatching. Hatching an egg is done with some special hatching technologies were the egg is placed for 21 days till they hatch and a small chicken is born.

When ProOvo receives the day old chicks, we keep them in our own rearing facility, which is a separate farm away from the egg production. The chickens are moved to the egg production at an age of app. 17 weeks.

Hens are more productive when they are healthy. In 1945, the average hen laid 151 eggs per year. Now, with breed selection, better nutrition, improved housing, special lighting programs, and more efficient management of facilities, the average hen lays approximately 320 eggs per year—that is almost an egg a day.

A hen's diet does not contain hormones or antibiotics, but plenty of grains, proteins, vitamins, minerals and fresh water. As a hen ages, the size of it's eggs increases. The younger the hen, the smaller the egg. ProOvo ensures good quality fodder by producing the fodder on our own fodder factory.
 
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The barns and the hens


The welfare system as ProOvo keeps hens in has been approved by the EU/SK as the future housing system for egg production and ensures the highest possible food safety and egg quality standards without compromising the welfare of the animals. Because Slovakia's climate is so variable and frequently harsh, indoor housing is necessary if hens are to be properly cared for, besides this the barns have efficient cooling system to secure the right climate also during the summer months.

Our barns provide a safe, healthy environment for hens by maintaining an appropriate group size and keeping them safe from predators. The technologies also support the hens' natural instinct to cluster together for security and social interaction.

Most of the eggs produced in Europe come from hens housed in cages, either welfare cages as ProOvo possesses or more simple old style cages. The birds have ready access to the feed troughs directly in front of their cages, and water is kept easily accessible from each cage.

Cage systems also help to keep the eggs safe from bacteria‘s that can be found in chicken manure. They are designed to allow manure to fall outside of the cage, away from the hens and from the eggs. In today's modern egg production, the eggs roll from the cages onto a conveyor belt leading to a temperature-controlled grading area where the eggs are quality controlled and classified.
 
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Grading and packaging


It is important to cool the eggs after the collection to keep them fresh and prevent any growth of bacteria. In connection to our grading area we have a cooling storage for approximately 2.5 million eggs, in this storage we can cool down to around 3 Degrees Celsius.

ProOvo grades all the eggs with MOBA OMNIA technology, grading up to 45.000 eggs/hour.

The grader includes the candling which is a bright light where all the eggs are scanned, by this scanning it is possible to see the condition of the shell, the size of the air inside the egg and if the yolk is well centered, this process determines the quality of the eggs and only A-quality eggs are being sold in shops.

After the candling process the eggs are physically graded according to weight into S, M, L and XL size eggs and packed into 6, 10, 12, 15, 30, 60 or 90 piece packages.

Eggs are placed in their boxes large end up to keep the air cell in place and the yolk centered. All the eggs in one box are not necessarily exactly the same weight but within a certain weight range/spread.

Continuously the quality of our eggs is being checked by state veterinarians to secure high food safety. Most eggs arrive into the shops the same week as the hen has produced it.
 
         
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