Egg pasteurization

In a process for preparing a packaged, pasteurized liquid egg product by heating a liquid egg composition consisting essentially of egg white having a population of viable organisms and containing conalbumin and ovalbumin, to a pasteurization temperature and holding the composition at that temperature for a time period effective to reduce the population of viable microorganisms, cooling the pasteurized egg composition, and packaging the egg composition in a sealed container, the improvement comprising:

• heating the liquid egg composition to an elevated temperature of from about 60.degree. to about 75 .degree. C.;
• subjecting the heated liquid egg composition to a first homogenization and adding hydrogen peroxide to the liquid egg composition to form a homogenized egg composition;
• holding the homogenized egg composition at the elevated temperature for a period of time sufficient to pasteurize it, with coagulation of at least 50% of the conalbumin, without significantly coagulating the ovalbumin, to form a dispersion of coagulated conalbumin in a liquid matrix;
• then
• cooling the dispersion;
• and then
• homogenizing the dispersion to reduce the size of coagulated particles to an average particle size of less than 2 microns to form a smooth-textured, opaque liquid egg composition;
• to thereby obtain a liquid egg composition which is stable at refrigerator temperatures for at least 30 days.