Bird Nest Cleaning Process

							Source from :
http://site.birdnestworld.biz/main/3076/index.asp?pageid=14043&t=birds-nest-cleaning

Bird's Nest Cleaning

All raw nests will go through cleaning process before being marketed as dry EBN to retailer
or manufacturer of ready-to-eat bird's nest. There are two cleaning process in general. One for
the White-Nest and one for the Black-Nest.

White Nest Cleaning

We provide cleaning services. Please contact '012-264 6331'. 100% PURE, NO additive or
chemicals. Client are welcome to view our processing showroom. We accept small quantity
                                     100g and above.



White Nest will normally be produced into 'Full Cup Shape-Zhan' EBN. This is because it is
clean with few impurities. Thus, the nest can be re-shape back to it original shape after
cleaning. White Nest may also be produced into the 'Chips' or 'Strip' EBN, but this is rare. As
'Zhan' fetches higher price, every care is taken during the cleaning process to avoid breaking
the nest.

Standard steps in White Nest cleaning is as following:

Brushing--Picking--Shaping--Air Dry

'Shaping' is the most guarded steps during the process. If you have a chance to visit a factory
of White Nest, you will notice they (the factory) never show you the 'shaping'!

The standard steps is very general and varied between factories. Factory may produced 'Zhan'
EBN in shape that is unique to them.

White Nest cleaning does not require any chemicals as it is clean with few impurities.
However, some factories will still use bleaching to enchance the colour or become 'Super
White' for house nest. This is because 'Super White' were deemed as 'better quality' and priced
higher. As oxidation will normally occur during processing, nest will turn a little yellowish in
colour. So, buy the 'Super White' at your own risk!


Black Nest Cleaning
Produced by the A.maximus spp, Black Nest is very dirty. As the name suggested it is black
and full of feathers. Raw Black Nest is cheaper than White Nest as it is more abundance and
its recovery rate is very low. A kg of raw Black Nest yield only 200g to 300g of cleaned EBN.

Black Nest is normally produced into nest piece or �pien�.
The standard cleaning step is as following:
Soaking-Loosening-Feather Removing-Picking-Molding
   1.     Soaking:                    Soak in hot water or in softener.
   2.     Loosening:                  Strip is loosened and separated by hand or scissors.
   3.     Feather Removing:           By floatation and/or bleaching.
   4.     Picking:                    Picking of remaining course and fine feathers.
   5.     Molding:                    Strand molded into desire shape or grade.
The above steps is just a standard steps and my varied between producers.

As Black Nest is very dirty and the color is not nice, bleaching is �necessary� unavoidable.
Many producer claims that there is no bleaching use. But think logically, how can you clean
something sooo� black and dirty (show on picture below)!

Even the golden nest piece �jin se yan pien� will go through some bleaching process to
make the �gold� color more palatable.