Effect of gamma irradiation at various temperatures on air and vacuum packed chicken tissues II. Fatty acid profiles of neutral and polar lipids separated from muscle and skin irradiated at 2–5°C

Abstract

Chicken muscle and skin were separately irradiated in air and under vacuum packaging at 0, 1, 3, 6 and 10 kGy using 137Cs (dose rate = 0.1 kGy/min). Lipids were isolated as neutral and polar subclasses from muscle samples and as total lipid extracts from skin. Lipids were converted to fatty acid methyl esters, analyzed by capillary gas chromatography and the data compiled as fatty acid profiles by statistical computer analysis. Normalized reports were assembled from this data for the three lipid extract types. Only negligible changes in fatty acid profiles were observed for the neutral lipids of muscle and for the fatty acyl residues of skin lipids. Minor changes of interest, however, were observed for the polyunsaturated fatty acyl residues in the polar lipid fractions of muscle tissue, especially at higher irradiation doses (6 and 10 kGy). Comparisons were made between these results and those of an earlier study were similar tissues were irradiated at -20°C. No new fatty acyl residues or other artifacts due to γ-irradiation were found in detectable amounts by gas chromatography in any of the lipid fractions isolated.