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Abstract
Excerpts from the report Summary: A recently developed electronic device detects and removes eggs containing bloodspots at a rate of 7,200 eggs per hour, and does it more accurately than can be done by hand. When manual grading of high quality eggs (80 to 100 percent A) is replaced by electronic bloodspot detection preceded by flash candling, industry can save 3 cents a case in grading costs. This saving results primarily from elimination of the costs of manual grading. If manual grading of individual eggs were added to flash candling and use of the bloodspot detector, there would be a total added cost of 13 cents per case above the costs of traditional methods. When 60 to 80 percent A quality is involved in the same grading method the added costs per case are 5 cents. The study involved approximately 3,400 time study readings, inspection of all eggs for grader accuracy and analysis of labor and equipment cost during the time 100 cases of eggs (36,000 eggs) were being graded and packed.