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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Healthy Processed Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #341014
Research Project: New Sustainable Processing Technologies to Produce Healthy, Value-Added Foods from Specialty Crops

Location: Healthy Processed Foods Research

Title: Effect of irradiation on quality of vacuum packed spicy beef chops

Author
item ZHAO, LIMING - Sichuan University
item ZHANG, YIN - Sichuan University
item GUO, SIYA - Sichuan University
item XIONG, WEI - Sichuan University
item XIA, HU - Sichuan University
item LIU, WENLONG - Sichuan University
item Pan, Zhongli
item VENKITASAMY, CHANDRASEKAR - University Of California

Submitted to: Journal of Food Quality
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/20/2017
Publication Date: 7/21/2017
Citation: Zhao, L., Zhang, Y., Guo, S., Xiong, W., Xia, H., Liu, W., Pan, Z., Venkitasamy, C. 2017. Effect of irradiation on quality of vacuum packed spicy beef chops. Journal of Food Quality. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/1054523.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/1054523

Interpretive Summary: Spicy beef jerky (SBJ) is a typical snack meat product, which requires pasteurization to improve quality, shelf life and food safety. Currently, sterilization of SBJ is performed using steam which is a cumbersome process with high energy usage. Irradiation is considered as the best method for control of pathogenic microorganisms in meat and meat products. To investigate feasibility of using irradiation to pasteurize SBJ, doses of 0, 0.5, 1.5, 3, 4, 6 and 8 kGy were used to treat SBJ, and the quality was analyzed. The results showed that lightness, drip loss, off- odor of SBJ increased, while the hardness, chewiness, gumminess, color preference and taste of SBJ decreased with the increase in irradiation dose. The possible reason for these quality changes might be free radicals produced by irradiation. The plate counts of treated SBJ indicated that 4 kGy was suitable for pasteurization of SBJ. Irradiation dose between 4 kGy and 6 kGy is recommended for treating SBJ to produce high quality product without affecting the sensory and textural qualities of SBJ.

Technical Abstract: To develop an alternative pasteurization process for the spicy beef jerky (SBJ), SBJ 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, 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 of 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.