A rapid direct solvent extraction method for the extraction of cyclobutanones from irradiated chicken and liquid whole egg

Abstract

Summary2‐Alkylcyclobutanones (cyclobutanones) are accepted as radiolytic markers in lipid‐containing foods (LCF). To date, cyclobutanones have not been detected in non‐irradiated foods. Their identification is the basis of a standardised detection test for irradiated LCF (BS EN 1785, 2003). This paper reports work to develop and refine a new rapid method for the analysis of cyclobutanones in irradiated LCF (e.g. chicken meat and liquid whole egg). Direct solvent extraction (DSE) enables the efficient screening of large numbers of food samples and is not as resource intensive as the BS EN 1785 (2003) method. The new DSE appears to be a promising, rapid, simple and robust method for the analysis of irradiated lipid‐containing foods.