Advances in non-destructive testing of egg quality

A wide range of non-destructive techniques have been proven to be useful tools for shell egg quality and freshness evaluation. They might be a strategic solution to replace – or highly reduce – traditional destructive and laboratory level methods for shell egg quality and freshness assessment. Indeed, non-destructive techniques are characterised by high accuracy, speed of analysis, instantaneous results, and low environmental impact. The recent success is based on the advances in instrumentation and data analysis strategies. However, their industrial implementation still requires an inclination to robust calibration construction and transfer to solution-oriented hardware. In this context, the chapter presents an overview of recent applications of a wide range of non-destructive methods (acoustic system and electronic nose systems) to the non-destructive assessment of egg quality and freshness, together with some possible directions to boost non-destructive techniques implementation in the vision of an egg Industry 4.0.