Automated High-Speed Inspection of Brown and Brown-Speckled Eggs in Production Processing to Detect and Classify Surface Contaminants

An increasing proportion of eggs produced world-wide are brown or brown-speckled eggs. In addition, egg production methods, such as free-range and organic poultry cultivation methods, increase the variety of contaminants that can be deposited on eggs. Old technology that inspects white eggs has great difficulty in distinguishing contaminants from the brown surfaces and speckles on brown and brown-speckled eggs. Contaminants can pose a serious health hazard to te consuming public if the contaminants are not reliably detected and removed. The recent advent of low-cost advanced multispectral component technology enables an advanced automation solution to be devised that will reduce processing costs and increase egg quality delivered to the consuming public. The project will provide a major advance in the ability to detect and classify contaminants and enable their removal by increased washing cycles without falsely rejecting eggs due to their harmless speckles. The resulting system will enable United States egg processing equipment makers to complete in the rapidly-growing world-wide egg processing machinery marketplace and thereby also contribute to the U.S. manufacturing job base.