Caspian Journal of Veterinary Sciences

Caspian Journal of Veterinary Sciences

Beyond enrichment: precision-designed eggs as food-based nutrient delivery systems

Document Type : Review article

Authors
1 Department of Agriculture, Sava C., Islamic Azad University, Savadkooh, Iran.
2 Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Amol University of Special Modern Technologies, Amol, Iran.
3 Department of Biological Sciences and Technologies, Sar. C., Islamic Azad University, Sari, Iran.
Abstract
Designer eggs offer a food-based approach to modifying egg composition through targeted changes in laying-hen nutrition. Although enrichment with n-3 fatty acids, selenium, vitamin D, vitamin E, carotenoids, and other bioactive compounds is well established, nutrient concentration alone does not determine nutritional value. Deposition depends on nutrient source, dose, dietary context, absorption, metabolism, and transport, while retention and bioaccessibility may change during storage and cooking. This review examined the transition from conventional enrichment to precision-designed eggs, focusing on nutrient deposition, multi-nutrient interactions, stability, bioavailability, and human nutritional relevance. Evidence showed that enrichment strategies can affect feed intake, laying performance, egg quality, and production efficiency, creating trade-offs that limit practical application. High supplementation costs, variable deposition efficiency, nutrient interactions, oxidative instability, and difficulty in maintaining a consistent nutritional profile further constrain large-scale production. Consequently, producers may face limited economic incentives when nutritional gains are not proportional to additional feed inputs or when enrichment compromises production traits. Human intervention studies indicated that fortified eggs can increase the intake and improve biomarkers of selected nutrient status, particularly n-3 fatty acids and carotenoids, whereas evidence for sustained physiological or clinical benefits remained limited and heterogeneous. Future development should therefore integrate nutritional targets with deposition efficiency, product quality, production cost, stability, bioavailability, consumer acceptance, and sustainability. Precision feeding and egg nutriomics may support this transition by enabling more targeted and reproducible nutritional profiles. The central shift is from producing eggs with more nutrients to designing eggs with a defined, stable, and demonstrable nutritional function.
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Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 12 November 2026

  • Receive Date 27 August 2026
  • Revise Date 04 September 2026
  • Accept Date 05 September 2026