COURTENAY, B.C. — Candling eggs is a simple way for small flock producers to keep customers happy and eggs clear of hazards, says a poultry specialist.
Clayton Botkin of the B.C. agriculture ministry said in an interview during the Islands Agriculture Show in Courtenay that the practice is done at grading stations but could easily be done for flocks marketed from the farmgate.
Candling can be as low tech as shining a flashlight on eggs to look for anything out of the ordinary, such as blood spots, worms and disrupted yolks.
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“It doesn’t need to be onerous or cumbersome,” Botkin said. “Consumer confidence is your business, and it’s everybody’s business.”
Elsie Friesen, food safety specialist with B.C. Agriculture, advised producers to wash eggs shortly after they are collected and to use clean containers when collecting them. This will keep their quality longer when refrigerated.
She recommended using cardboard egg cartons only once to limit contamination.
“Cardboard isolates each egg and isolates each egg from absorbing odours,” she said.
“Do not reuse containers.”
Eggs must be graded when sold beyond the farmgate and should ideally be sold within days of collection or within three weeks at the most, she said.
“Best before dates (on store cartons) are based on quality, but it’s not a food safety issue,” said Friesen.
Botkin said that Vancouver Island has an abundance of specialty markets and small flocks with numerous broiler and egg operations and specialty turkeys. Eighty percent of British Columbia’s poultry industry is centred in the Fraser Valley, with the rest split between Vancouver Island and the mainland.
The avian influenza has not affected island birds, but the risk is there as long as migrating waterfowl remain, he said. Poultry can pick up the virus from contact with infected waterfowl or poultry, dirt, cages, water and feed.
“(Producers) need to stay educated, stay on their toes, mitigate the biosecurity risk as best as they can,” said Botkin, who raises show chickens.
“AI is as big a threat to small flocks as commercial ones.”
About 250,000 birds, mainly in commercial flocks, have tested positive for the disease and been de-stroyed since the outbreak in the Fraser Valley Dec. 1.
