Monitoring the concentration of aldehydes in chicken meat during the storage period after treatment by accelerated electrons

A method of food radiation treatment can address a number of problems in the food industry, including the suppression of pathogenic microbial contamination, preservation of the nutritional value of the prod­uct, and extension of the food shelf life. When combined with a highly sensitive gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, the method provides detection of biochemical markers of radiation processing in meat prod­ucts with a low content of fat, such as chicken and turkey. We present the results of studying the depend­ ence of the content of volatile organic compounds in chilled chicken meat treated with 1 MeV accelerated electrons in a dose range from 250 Gy to 20 kGy during two weeks of storage. Concentrations of volatile organic compounds in the irradiated and control samples of food samples were determined on the zeroth, 1 st , 4 th , 6 th , 8 th , 11 th and 13 th days after irradiation. Concentrations of aldehydes, namely, hexanal, heptanal, and pentanal identified in poultry meat samples exposed to radiation demonstrated a similar behavior during two weeks of product storage. Samples exposed to irradiation in a dose range from 500 Gy to 10 kGy exhibited an increase in the aldehyde content on days 1-4 after irradiation. It is shown that the time of aldehydes accumulation in irradiated meat shifts towards a shorter period of the product storage with an increase in the dosage of irradiation. Thus, aldehydes can be considered potential markers of the radiation treatment of chicken meat during the first four days after irradiation.