High fat to protein ratio egg yolk product and methods for making and utilizing same

A process for preparing a high fat to protein ratio egg yolk which comprises:

• (a) recovering an egg yolk from a whole egg;
• (b) immersing the egg yolk in food grade water at a ratio of 1 part egg yolk to at least 9 parts water;
• (c) permitting the egg yolk and the water to rest for at least 48 hours so that the egg yolk and water separate into an upper hydrophilic fraction and a lower lipophilic fraction containing the high fat to protein ratio egg yolk;
• (d) removing the lower lipophilic fraction from the upper hydrophilic fraction;
• and
• (e) drying the lower lipophilic fraction to produce the dried high fat to protein ratio egg yolk.

A process of preparing a high fat to protein ratio egg yolk comprising

• (a) recovering egg yolk from whole egg by substantially removing all of the incidental egg white in the whole egg;
• (b) immersing the egg yolk in a compatible solvent selected from the group consisting of water, alcohol and another acceptable food grade solvent and a combining agent selected from the group consisting of ammonium sulphate, copper sulphate, dextrin and another acceptable food grade salt;
• (c) permitting the egg yolk and the solvent to rest for at least 48 hours so that the egg yolk and solvent separate into an upper hydrophilic fraction and a lower lipophilic fraction containing the high fat to protein ratio egg yolk;
• (d) removing the lower lipophilic fraction from the upper hydrophilic fraction;
• and
• (e) drying the lower lipophilic fraction to produce a dried high fat to protein egg yolk that has a ratio of yolk fat to yolk protein in the egg white free yolk material greater than 2.0:1.

A process for preparing a dried high egg yolk fat to protein ratio egg yolk which comprises:

• (a) separating an egg yolk from a whole egg;
• (b) concentrating the fat to protein ratio of the egg yolk so that the ratio is greater than 2.0:1 by immersing the egg yolk in cold, de-ionized or RO filtered water which is mixed with the egg yolk at a ratio of 1 part egg yolk to at least 9 parts water and permitting the egg yolk and the water to rest for at least 48 hours so that the egg yolk and the water separate into an upper hydrophilic fraction and a lower lipophilic fraction which contains the high egg yolk fat to protein ratio egg yolk;
• (c) separating the lower lipophilic fraction from the upper hydrophilic fraction by centrifugation;
• and
• (d) drying the concentrated egg yolk in the lower lipophilic fraction in a spray dryer to produce the dried high egg yolk fat to protein ratio egg yolk.