# The Quality Analysis and Deterioration Mechanism of Liquid Egg White during Storage
###### Abstract  
The quality of liquid egg white (LEW) during storage is critical for the development of the egg industry. In order to effectively control its storage quality, the effects of packaging materials and storage conditions on the quality of LEW were investigated. High-throughput sequencing (HTS) was applied to explore changes in bacterial population proportions and microflora in the spoilage of LEW. The shelf life of LEW packaged with glass (LEW-PG), plastic (LEW-PP), and tinplate (LEW-PT) was preliminarily determined to be 8, 5, and 7 days, respectively. LEW-PG possessed superior sensory scores (65) and L values (87.5), and a lower growth rate of total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) content among the three samples on the last day of shelf life, and was chosen for further study. During 24 days of storage, the sensory scores of the LEW-PG in 10 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C groups decreased by 32.7% and 25.7%, respectively. There was no significant difference in foaming properties of LEW-PG between the 10 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C groups (\(p>0.05\)). HTS analysis showed that the abundance of species composition in the 10 \({}^{\circ}\)C samples was higher than that in the 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C samples, though the latter possessed a higher community diversity. At the genus level, the dominant bacteria in the 10 \({}^{\circ}\)C group were _Pseudomonas_ (21.79%), others (19.21%), and _Escherichia_ (11.21%), while others (37.5%), _Escherichia_ (30.40%), and _Bifidobacterium_ (17.72%) were highly abundant in the 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C samples. It is hoped that this study could provide theoretical support for quality control of LEW during storage. liquid egg white; packaging materials; storage quality; high-throughput sequencing 202212500. [[https://doi.org/10.3390/app120525](https://doi.org/10.3390/app120525)]([https://doi.org/10.3390/app120525](https://doi.org/10.3390/app120525))physicochemical characteristics [8, 9]. At present, many studies have highlighted several emerging sterilization technologies to improve microbial safety, as well as functionality and nutritionality of LEW products, such as ohmic heating [10], high hydrostatic pressure [11], and ultrahigh temperature [12]. Apart from these approaches, other important issues for the preservation of the quality of LEW are packaging materials and storage conditions. The packaging materials for liquid food in industrial production are mainly plastic, paper, paper-plastic, and tinplate [13]. Plastic and paper packaging materials are widely used in food packaging due to their good performance and low price [14]. The molecular substances in plastic or paper packaging materials may, however, migrate to food or food contents [15]. A certain amount of migration might lead to changes in the flavor of liquid foods, and may even affect human health [16, 17]. It has been reported that the properties of food substrates and storage conditions are related to the amount of migration [18] Therefore, it is urgent to find optimal packaging materials and storage conditions that are suitable for LEW that are combined with its characteristics. Moreover, effective control of pathogenic bacteria is also a potential alternative for maintaining the quality of LEW. In early years, a great deal of researchers established microbiological growth models, aiming to predict shelf life and improve the safety and quality of LEW [19, 20]. However, the deterioration mechanism of LEW during storage remains unclear. As a result, the development of prevention and control technology for product storage lacks the necessary theoretical basis. With the rapid development of molecular techniques, high-throughput sequencing (HTS) has been regarded as a powerful tool in numerous fields of research, and contributes to presenting dynamic changes in communities and analyzing the correlations between spoilage bacteria and their metabolic pathways [21]. In recent studies, there has been a lack of applications of HTS in exploring the species of spoilage bacteria in LEW during storage.