Irradiation dose control of chicken meat processing with alanine/ESR dosimetric system

Abstract

Irradiation of foodstuff is a well-known food preservation technique. In Brazil spices are already irradiated for sanitary and preservation reasons. Chicken meat is an important commodity; Brazil is the second largest world producer and the largest world exporter. The shelf-life of chicken meat is limited by the presence of micro-organisms and enzyme activity and together with other preservation techniques irradiation seems to be an attractive option. In this study the dose delivered to frozen chicken cuts was measured and compared with the prescribed value. Chicken breast cuts were analyzed for 39 days for their microbiological activity, chemical and organoleptic properties. Cylindrical dosimeters were prepared using the weight composition of 80% of DL-alanine (Sigma Co), used without any further treatment except drying, and 20% of paraffin. The dosimeters having 4.7 mm diameter and 12 mm length were inserted in a build-up cap. Dosimeters were placed inside cardboard boxes containing frozen chicken breast cuts, packed in styrofoam trays wrapped with plastic film. The boxes were irradiated in an industrial 60Co irradiator (Nordion JS 7500) with a dose rate of 4 kGy/h. First derivative ESR signals were obtained in a VARIAN E-4 spectrometer operating at X-band ( ν ≈ 9 GHz ) and equipped with a rectangular cavity (TE-102, model E-231). The cavity was constantly purged with dry nitrogen and modulated at 100 KHz with 0.5 mT peak to peak. A calibration curve was made for a few dosimeters from the same batch and used to obtain the dose from the ESR signal intensity. A batch of six boxes was irradiated at each experiment with prescribed doses of 1.5, 3.0 and 7.0 kGy. Considering that the larger the radiation dose the greater is the probability of finding a product with its sensorial characteristics altered (odor of burned meat), we conclude that a dose of 3 kGy would be more adequate, taking into account the microbiological and sensorial aspects.