Effect of Irradiation on Quality of Vacuum-Packed Spicy Beef Chops

Liming Zhao,Wei Xiong,Zhongli Pan,Wenlong Liu,Yin Zhang,Chandrasekar Venkitasamy,Hu Xia,Siya Guo

doi:10.1155/2017/1054523

Abstract

To develop an alternative pasteurization process for the spicy beef jerky (SBJ), it was treated with irradiation doses of 0, 0.5, 1.5, 3, 4, 6, and 8 kGy and the sensory attributes, texture properties, drip loss, and the protein biological efficiency were studied. The results showed that lightness, drip loss, and off-odor of SBJ increased, while the hardness, chewiness, gumminess, color preference, and taste of SBJ decreased with the increase in irradiation dose. This tendency was obvious as the irradiation dose increased to 6 kGy and 8 kGy. The possible reason for these quality changes might be due to the free radicals produced by irradiation. This speculation is supported by the decrease of the content of capsanthin and the increase of the content of TBARS of SBJ with the increase in irradiation dose. The plate counts of treated SBJ indicated that 4 kGy was suitable for pasteurization of SBJ.

Highlights

Spicy beef jerky (SBJ) is a popular meat product in China, which is being consumed or mostly being bestowed as a snack food
The lightness, drip loss, and off-odor of SBJ increased while the hardness, chewiness, gumminess, sensory color, and taste of SBJ were decreased with the increase in irradiation dose
The possible reason for these quality changes might be free radicals produced by irradiation

Summary

Introduction

Spicy beef jerky (SBJ) is a popular meat product in China, which is being consumed or mostly being bestowed as a snack food. With the rapid development of tourism industry in China, more and more SBJ is sold as local specialty with a huge market demand [1, 2]. In this situation, quality and food safety of SBJ become very important. The steam process is batch operation which consumes more energy and degrades the quality of meat products [6, 7]. New and alternative processes are expected to be developed for sterilization of SBJ

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Conclusion