The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of sanitization and storage temperature on the quality of commercial eggs inoculated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We used 240 large eggs, without cracks, from Dekalb White laying hens at 30 to 40 weeks of age. The experimental design used was two blocks in a 2 x 2 factorial arrange (washed/non-washed and refrigerated/non-refrigerated) with twelve replicates. The eggs were contaminated by handling, with 1.5 x 10(5) colony-forming units (CFU) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and stored at 5 ºC and 25 ºC for 30 days. Each ten days the eggshell and contents were submitted to bacteriological analyses. Variance analyses were performed and the data were compared by Tukey test. The results showed that Pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated from the shells and contents of all eggs. Therefore, when the eggs were sanitized and stored at 5 ºC the contamination was less intense. The correlation between the presences of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the shell and contents was high, when the eggs were not sanitized nor refrigerated. The conclusion of this study was that the egg must be sanitized and refrigerated when the stored for more than 30 days.
bacterial contamination; commercial eggs; storage; temperature