Gotta keep 'em separated

November 12, 2006 1:21 PM

How do they separate eggs on an industrial scale?

A pastry chef friend of mine told me she separated > 200 eggs yesterday, by hand. That seems like a pretty large scale to me, but it's hard for me to believe that the cartons of egg whites you can buy in the grocery store were separated by hand.

I've tried the single egg separator kitchen gizmos and they tended to break more eggs than doing it by hand.

What do they use to fill cartons of egg whites?

posted by aubilenon to food & drink (7 comments total)

With a machine like this, I assume. It seems to work by letting the white flow through an opening that's too small for the yolk to fall through.
posted by chrismear at 1:33 PM on November 12, 2006

Not sure how, but the numbers are impressive:

"Diamond Systems, based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, is the world leader in egg packing, grading and breaking machines. The company develops, manufactures, markets and services its products to egg producers and egg processors on six continents. These complex machines have capacities from 22,000 to 72,000 eggs per hour. Grading systems load, wash, inspect, weigh and pack eggs into cartons and trays at rates of 14,000 to 144,000 eggs per hour. Breaker-separators load, wash, inspect, break and separate egg yolks from egg whites at speeds of 36,000 to 144,000 eggs per hour. Not only are these machines complex, they must operate flawlessly because of the extremely fragile nature of the product they handle."

See this case study.
posted by blue_wardrobe at 1:34 PM on November 12, 2006

Ooh, blue_wardrobe's link leads us to Diamond Systems, who have loads of photos and downloadable PDFs of their egg-related machinery. Amazing.
posted by chrismear at 1:42 PM on November 12, 2006

Wow, these are all great answers. Thanks a lot guys.

Finally a solution to all life's problems!
posted by aubilenon at 5:47 PM on November 12, 2006

In my gratitude I offer you this link
posted by aubilenon at 5:52 PM on November 12, 2006

any backstory on that last link, OP?
posted by Mr. Gunn at 7:55 AM on November 13, 2006

Mr Gunn, just go to the main page at the domain where the video is and you can find their link to the project info.

Aubilenon, if you're one of the nnnnnnnn.org people, I recomend you submit this to artbots.org for next year -- it could be a great artbots exhibit.
posted by allterrainbrain at 4:01 PM on November 13, 2006