Keele Research Repository

Metabonomic techniques have been used to observe differences in the small molecule profiles of chicken eggs, to work towards the detection, and thus prevention, of fraud regarding the misrepresentation of egg farming systems. High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Quadrupole-Time-of-Flight-Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-Q-ToF-MS) was used to obtain profiles of the small molecules found in the yolks of eggs that were laid by hens in enriched cage systems, and in barn systems. Statistical analysis of these small molecule profiles, including the use of XCMS Online and multivariate statistics, was able to uncover differences between the yolks of cage and barn eggs. Several unidentified compounds were found to be present in significantly different abundances between cage and barn egg yolks and one of these compounds was tentatively identified, through the use of METLIN, as 1,2-dipalmitoyl-glycero-3-phosphocholine.