Local egg farm N&N Agriculture has been a strong proponent of using technology to create new ways of running a traditional industry like egg farming, and coming up with new products along the way. This can be seen in its commitment to splash out S$13 million to install a pasteurisation facility at its 13-ha farm.

Its eggs, sold under the Egg Story brand, go through a patented pasteurisation process developed by a US company called National Pasteurized Eggs. Essentially, they will be submerged in a warm water bath and the temperature and length of time used effectively destroys Salmonella and bird flu that may exist inside and outside the egg – but not cooking it, CEO Ma Chin Chew explained when Channel NewsAsia visited the farm recently.

By contrast, most eggs sold at supermarkets are not pasteurised, he added.

The CEO shared that he, and the two other local players Chew’s Group and Seng Choon Farm, were first introduced to the technology by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA). He subsequently made another four trips to the US to see how the system works before committing to the investment.

“At that time, I didn’t know if the (Singapore) market could and would support the (pasteurisation) technology,” he admitted.

But his desire to create safe and quality eggs meant he was the only one who took the plunge and, since then, the modern farmer has been hard at work reinventing the way egg farming is done and developing new products to bring to the market.