Rapid testing of irradiation dose in beef and potatoes by reaction-based optical sensing technique

Food irradiation is becoming increasingly popular in many countries for preserving and extending the shelf life of foods, which creates a demand for express methods for the detection of absorbed doses. This paper proposes an innovative method for the estimation of the dose absorbed by X-rayed beef samples using a reaction -based optical sensing technique that was proposed earlier by our team for the estimation of the dose absorbed by raw potatoes. Potato and beef samples were exposed to X-ray irradiation at 100 and 1000 Gy and then extracted by water at 23 C-degrees for 24 h or 60/70 C-degrees for 1 h. The resulting solutions were introduced to the reaction mixtures of dyes (carbocyanines, Rhodamines, or Crystal Violet) with oxidants (hypochlorite, bromate, or hydrogen peroxide). The fluorescence intensity and absorbance of the mixtures were periodically measured photographically using visualizers. The data were processed using linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and k -nearest neighbors algorithm (kNN). Using the most efficient individual reactions, the doses can be recognized with a 90-100% accuracy, and the combinations of up to 5 reactions can improve the accuracy to 100%. The protocol is simple and rapid: sample extraction time and indicator reactions take not more than 1 h each. The proposed method potentially has a wide area of applications ranging from plants to animal products.