Abstract An unusually popular index reflecting the quality of the egg contents and known as the Haugh unit (HU) score is empirical in nature. Because of that, a number of studies appeared that contradict or try to improve this index. In this regard, we set a study that pursued several goals: (i) to trace the rationale for developing the HU index and give it a theoretical reassessment; and (ii) based on the assumptions of previous studies in this field, to revisit and refine the index by increasing such its components as the mathematical adequacy and information value. As a result, an alternative index was inferred that we called the Egg Quality Index (EQI) and described using the appropriate mathematical dependencies. This novel index, in addition to the egg weight (W), takes into account the physical properties of the thick albumen (by measuring its height, H) and yolk (by identifying its diameter, d, or height, h). We, then, compared the two indices, HU and EQI, using the simulation modelling approach. The results of comparison of the two indices as applied to a various set of parameters characteristic of chicken eggs suggested a wider potential for using EQI due to the inclusion of an additional parameter reflecting the yolk condition as well as a more accurate distribution of the studied eggs in quality grade groups with various gradations of consumer attractiveness.

中文翻译：

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一种新的鸡蛋质量指数作为哈夫单位得分的替代品

摘要 一个非常受欢迎的反映鸡蛋内容质量的指标，称为哈夫单位 (HU) 分数，本质上是经验性的。因此，出现了一些与该指数相矛盾或试图改进该指数的研究。在这方面，我们制定了一项旨在追求以下几个目标的研究：(i) 追溯制定 HU 指数的基本原理并对其进行理论重新评估；(ii) 基于该领域以往研究的假设，通过增加其数学充分性和信息价值等组成部分来重新审视和完善该指数。因此，推断出一个替代指数，我们称之为鸡蛋质量指数 (EQI)，并使用适当的数学相关性进行描述。这个新颖的指数，除了蛋重（W），考虑到厚蛋白（通过测量其高度 H）和蛋黄（通过确定其直径 d 或高度 h）的物理特性。然后，我们使用模拟建模方法比较了两个指数 HU 和 EQI。应用于鸡蛋的各种参数特征的两个指数的比较结果表明，由于包含反映蛋黄状况的附加参数以及所研究鸡蛋的更准确分布，因此使用 EQI 具有更广泛的潜力在具有不同消费者吸引力等级的质量等级组中。