Internal and external defects of eggs should be detected to prevent
cross-contamination of intact eggs by abnormal eggs during storage. Emerging
detection technologies for abnormal eggs were introduced as an alternative to
human inspection. The advanced technologies could rapidly detect abnormal eggs.
Abnormal egg detection technologies using acoustic response, machine vision, and
spectroscopy have been commercialized in the poultry industry. Non-destructive
egg quality assessment methods meanwhile could preserve the value of eggs and
improve detection efficiency. In order to improve detection efficiency, it is
essential to select a proper algorithm for classifying the types of abnormal
eggs. This review deals with the performance of the detection technologies for
various types of abnormal eggs in recently published resources. In addition, the
discriminant methods and detection algorithms of abnormal eggs reported in the
published literature were investigated. Although the majority of the studies
were conducted on a laboratory scale, the developed detection technologies for
internal and external defects in eggs were technically feasible to obtain the
excellent detection accuracy. To apply the developed detection technologies to
the poultry industry, it is necessary to achieve the detection rates required
from the industry.