CHICKEN EGGS FOR MEDICINE
GOAL
We aim to create a device that can efficiently dehydrate an egg at low temperature to help preserve excess eggs and transport them easily. Our target user would be people in Malawi, Africa. We spoke to Dr. Mark Manary about the specific people who would be using the dehydrator. We concluded that the dehydrator would belong to a village and the community would share it and then ration off the dehydrated egg products.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Appropriate Technology: Spring Quarter 2018
Our project this quarter is to develop a way to collect eggs, preserve them, and dry them for future use. This development will be used for collecting eggs from chickens who have been inoculated with human diseases in order to create eggs containing the antibodies for those specific diseases. These dried eggs will serve as an more affordable alternative to traditional vaccinations and other medicines. Although we have the concept, there is further research and testing that needs to go into this design and procedure.
THE CONSTRAINTS
To properly preserve the antibodies in the chicken eggs, the dehydrator needs to operate at low temperatures (below 80 degrees celsius). We also need to create a dehydrator that is cheap. We also do not know if this egg dehydrator will be used more by large scale chicken farms or by small families/communities in Malawi.
TEAM
Get to Know Us
SHAYNA AIGNER
Second Year, Graphic Communication
saigner@calpoly.edu
(949) 949-4903
BRETT CREWS
MADDY HOSICK
Fourth Year, Anthropology
KELLY LYONS
Second Year, Political Science
kmlyons@calpoly.edu
(925) 997-9894
DESIGN MATRIX
RESEARCH
Eggs are among the highest quality protein foods because they provide each of the amino acids your body needs to function properly. A fresh egg contains about 6 grams of protein. Powdered eggs provide about the same amount of protein, but are fat-free, cholesterol-free and lower in calories.
A 1-tablespoons serving of powdered eggs, the equivalent of 1 large egg when mixed with 1/4 cup of water, contains 30 calories. While reconstituted egg will not match the exact texture of a fresh egg, powdered eggs offer the benefit of fewer calories -- one large, fresh egg contains 50 calories.
Eggs dehydrate easily, and most online sources suggest keeping the eggs at 135° F to 145° F for about 10 hours. However this temperature is not sufficient to keep salmonella from forming during the dehydration process, because this leaves eggs in the food safety danger zone for too long. This temperature is also too high to preserve antibodies that may possibly be present in the eggs themselves.
​
Dehydrated eggs have a shelf life of about one month at room temperature and about a year at refrigerated temperatures.
If properly stored in an oxygen-free environment and kept cool and dark, dehydrated eggs allegedly have a storage life of five to 10 years.
 |  |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |
CONCLUSION
Wrapping Everything Up
We hope that the future groups who take over this project can build off of our ideas. Ideally, they will find and test a cheap insulation material and test the dehydrator using a solar powered light bulb as the heat source. In the short time that we had, we learned a lot about developing communities in the world. We learned about the needs for this dehydrator. However, there is still a lot we do not know. We still do not know how the chicken eggs will be inoculated with human diseases and how to dehydrate those eggs without ruining that process. Although we failed at completing a dehydrator by the end of this quarter, I still think we we succeeded in what we were able to achieve. We are excited to see what the next groups can build off of our box!
