Nutritional value and sensory characteristics of eggs from laying hens fed hempseed

In recent years, the poultry industry has been focused on feed ingredients to produce table eggs with improved nutritional quality by enhancing n-3 fatty acid (FA) content. The present study evaluated the effect of hempseed supplementation (as environmental and nutritional enrichments) over the diet on the chemical and mineral composition of eggs, cholesterol content, and the FA profile of the yolk, besides the egg sensory characteristics. To this purpose, 900 Hy-line Brown laying hens were randomly allocated in 4 pens of an experimental aviary and fed a corn and soybean meal-based diet. From 37 to 40 weeks of age, in two pens, whole hempseeds were distributed (10% of the daily feed intake) in two circular feeders per pen once a day. A total of 480 eggs (60 per pen per sampling time) were collected after 14 and 28 days of feeding laying hens with hempseeds. The chemical composition and cholesterol content of egg yolk were not affected by either the diet or the sampling time (P > 0.05), whereas FA profile (expressed as % of total fatty acids) was largely affected by hempseed supplementation. Namely, total saturated FA (SFA; P < 0.001), in particular myristic and palmitic acids, decreased in the yolks from hens fed hempseeds compared to control hens, as for total monounsaturated FA (MUFA; P < 0.05). Both n-3 (+30%; P < 0.001) and n-6 PUFAs (+11.4%; P < 0.05) increased, whereas n6/n3 PUFA ratio (−20.17%; P < 0.001) decreased in eggs from hens fed hempseed compared to control hens. Dietary treatment did not influence the mineral composition of yolk or albumen (P > 0.05). The sampling time did not affect the total SFA, MUFA, and PUFA of yolk lipids (P > 0.05), whereas the yolk and albumen of the eggs collected on day 14 had higher levels of sodium, magnesium, and phosphorus (P< 0.05) than eggs collected on day 28. At the sensory evaluation, in the ranking test, 46% of the participants found out the difference between boiled eggs from hens receiving or not hempseed supplementation. Moreover, the ranking of the eggs did not indicate the preferences of the participants for one type of egg over another (P > 0.05). In conclusion, the supplementation with hempseed at 10% of daily feed intake in laying hens improved the FA composition of yolk lipids without impacting the mineral content or the sensory profiles of the boiled eggs.