Alta. egg breaking plant | Co-operative can produce liquid eggs and eggshell membranes
There’s one plant, one customer, many members and many plans.
Egg Processing Innovations Co-operative (EPIC), which has been operating since April, is the only egg-breaking plant in Alberta. It has equipment to break eggs, separate eggs, pasteurize product, package liquid eggs into totes and separate membrane from eggshells for use in other products.
“It took awhile to get all the kinks out of it, but we’re happy now that it’s running. We want to carry on and get more eggs,” said John Waldner, chair of United Egg Farmers, which owns the Lethbridge plant.
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EPIC is the culmination of a long-term dream for Alberta egg producers. They sought alternatives to the former practice of shipping eggs to British Columbia or Manitoba plants for breaking, only to have liquid eggs shipped back to Alberta for use in food production, restaurants and health-care facilities.
EPIC has 143 members, 108 of which put money into the operation and about 110 of which are Hutterite colonies.
Chief executive officer Bruce Forbes said the plant’s size, and the size of members’ egg operations, will allow it to be more nimble in serving niche markets.
EPIC has one customer now. Champion Pet Foods, based in Morinville, Alta., wants 51 percent of the eggs it uses in its products to come from cage-free operations. EPIC can supply them at the federally inspected plant and is encouraging members to produce more eggs in cage-free environments.
However, the supply management system governing eggs means the plant will not have a guaranteed supply of eggs for its first six months until it establishes reliable demand, said Forbes.
“We haven’t been able to get as many eggs as we were hoping for, to be truthful, so our capacity hasn’t climbed as high as it could be, but it’s coming shortly.”
For the moment, the plant is breaking off-sized eggs unsuitable for the table market and buying the rest of its supply on the open market.
Forbes said the co-op is pursuing a contract with Alberta Health Services to supply liquid eggs for its facilities. It has also had discussions with a vitamin and supplement company interested in eggshell membrane for its natural eggshell membrane product designed to ease arthritis pain.
Other egg-breaking plants ship their shells to landfills, but Forbes said EPIC wants to find a use for the entire egg and maintain a “green” operation with little waste.
He said the co-op has invested $5.2 million in EPIC’s equipment, which is installed in a former dairy plant that it now leases but plans to buy.
A staff of 11 may grow to 24 once the plant acquires more customers.
