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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Foodborne Toxin Detection and Prevention Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #330986
Research Project: Advance the Development of Technologies for Detecting and Determining the Stability and Bioavailability of Toxins that Impact Food Safety and Food Defense

Location: Foodborne Toxin Detection and Prevention Research

Title: Volatile compounds and odor traits of dry-cured ham (Prosciutto crudo) irradiated by electron beam and gamma ray

Author
item KONG, QIULIAN - Shanghai Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item YAN, WEIQIANG - Shanghai Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item YUE, LING - Shanghai Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item CHEN, ZHIJUN - Shanghai Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item WAMG, HAIHONG - Shanghai Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item QI, WENYUAN - Shanghai Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item He, Xiaohua

Submitted to: Radiation Physics and Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/4/2016
Publication Date: 9/5/2016
Publication URL: http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/63164
Citation: Kong, Q., Yan, W., Yue, L., Chen, Z., Wamg, H., Qi, W., He, X. 2016. Volatile compounds and odor traits of dry-cured ham (Prosciutto crudo) irradiated by electron beam and gamma ray. Journal of Radiation Physics and Chemistry. 130:265-272. doi: 10.1016/j.radphyschem.2016.09.0080969-806X.

Interpretive Summary: Dry-cured ham, proscicutto crudo, is a popular “Ready to Eat (RTE)” food. Millions of thighs are processed for hams each year. However, proscicutto crudo is extremely vulnerable to germs from environment, utensils or personnel during manufacture processing. Pasteurization has been used to eliminate bacteria in RTE meat products before marketing, but it often results in undesirable changes in ham flavor and quality due to the heat. Irradiation is a “cold treatment” and has been used as an alternative method to eliminate pathogens in raw meat. This study compared the effect of gamma ray and electron beam irradiation on the volatile compounds and sensory traits of ham, suggesting that electron beam irradiation is a better non-thermal processing technology for dry-cured prosciutto crudo than gamma ray irradiation.

Technical Abstract: Prosciutto crudo were irradiated at 0, 3 and 6kGy by gamma ray (GR) and electron beam (EB), respectively. The odor scores and volatile compounds were examined after 7 days storage at 4'. Volatile compounds from samples without and with irradiation at 6kGy were analyzed by GC-MS. Fifty-nine compounds were identified, including terpenes, aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, alkanes, esters, aromatic hydrocarbons and acids. Both GR and EB irradiation resulted in formation of (Z)-7-Hexadecenal, cis-9-hexadecenal,tetradecane,E-9-tetradecen-1-ol formate, and losing of hexadecamethyl-heptasiloxane and decanoic acid-ethyl ester in hams. However, GR irradiation caused additional changes, such as formation of undecane and phthalic acid-2-cyclohexylethyl butyl ester, significantly higher level of 1-pentadecene, and losing of (E, E)-2,4-decadienal and octadecane. EB was shown better in maintaining ham’s original odor than GR. Our results suggest that EB irradiation is a promising method for treatment of Ready-to-Eat hams, it exerts much less negative effect on the flavor of hams compared to GR irradiation.