Simply Eggs Beats Other Substitutes in Flavor : Products: Firm’s innovation is low in cholesterol and has a 10-week shelf life. But skeptics say it has the same fat content and more sodium than the real thing.

Milk is skimmed and hot dogs are made from turkey. Beer has gone Lite, soft drinks have gone diet, and even the lean fast-food hamburger is old hat now.

But a Minnesota company has cooked up what may be the Holy Grail for health-conscious cooks: low-cholesterol eggs.

Some food industry experts say Simply Eggs, introduced in test markets two months ago by Michael Foods Inc., could change the way Americans think about eggs.

“It’s the kind of product that’s long overdue,” said Kevin Skislock, a food industry analyst with Dain Bosworth Inc., a Minneapolis-based brokerage. “I think it ranks fairly high in innovation. It’s very close to the natural egg form.”

Eggs used to be promoted as nature’s “almost perfect food,” but that image cracked years ago amid warnings about the dangers of cholesterol.

Excess cholesterol has been linked to heart conditions and other ailments. The American Heart Assn. recommends daily consumptions of no more than 300 milligrams and no more than four egg yolks a week. A large egg has about 213 milligrams, all in the yolk.

Per capita consumption in the United States dropped from 402 eggs in 1945 to 233 last year, according to the American Egg Board.

Several companies, led by Nabisco Brand’s Egg Beaters, have tried with limited success to tempt health-conscious consumers with no-cholesterol egg substitutes mostly made up of egg whites and artificial coloring. However, most consumers say they don’t match the taste of shell eggs.

Simply Eggs attempts to be different. It’s a liquid product made from whole eggs but has 80% less cholesterol and has been pasteurized.

In the cholesterol-removal process, yolks and whites are separated and then rejoined. In between, a processed starch substance called beta cyclodextrin is mixed with the yolks and then removed, along with the cholesterol, by centrifugal force.

Many dietitians and food experts say Simply Eggs matches the flavor of shell eggs.

“I can find no difference,” said Lois Lee, director of Cooks of Crocus Hill Inc., a St. Paul cooking school. “I’ve made scrambled eggs. I’ve cooked with them, measuring out a quarter of a cup per egg. In baked goods, I really didn’t find any difference in texture.”

Michael Foods uses a patented pasteurization process developed by North Carolina State University that gives Simply Eggs a 10-week shelf life. The process also protects it from salmonella, a bacteria that can contaminate raw eggs and cause serious illness. Normal pasteurization of shell eggs eliminates most but not all risk of contamination and provides a shelf life of about four weeks.

Skeptics, though, say Simply Eggs is not a perfect product. It has the same fat content--about five grams--and more sodium than real eggs and is competing against egg substitutes that have no cholesterol and little fat.

But five grams of fat isn’t much even for people on a low-fat diets that limit them to 100 grams of fat daily, said Craig Hassel, assistant professor of food science and nutrition at the University of Minnesota.