ASSESSMENT OF RADIATION SAFETY OF CHILLED MEAT USING THE METHOD OF ELECTRON PARAMAGNETIC RESONANCE

In the world practice, the radiation technologies for food product processing are extensively used; with that, free radicals are found in products. Scientists have not made a final conclusion about the complete safety of the method of radiation sterilization, so it is very important to control irradiated food products to determine a fact of irradiation and residual effects. The experimental data obtained on the domestic spectrometer EPR series Labrador Expert X, which was developed by Spektr LLC with the assistance of the research team of the authors from the Institute of Natural Sciences of UrFU named after Yeltsin B. N., indicate the presence of free radicals in the samples of boneless beef, which is probably associated with °Ccurrence of ante-mortem technological and slaughter stress in animals. Irradiation of the chicken meat samples carried out in laboratory conditions allows a comparison of the spectra before and after irradiation. The dose of irradiation of poultry was 12 kGy. This dose was selected based on the practice of recognizing the radiation doses of 10-12 kGy as safe, which was established in many countries. It was found that in the range of the magnetic fields from 3272 to 3280 Gs, there was a weak EPR signal with an amplitude of 7.28 e-05 and D less than 1. Such a background signal can be explained by stress in the birds, peculiarities of feeding and other factors. After irradiation at a dose of 12 kGy, the ESR signal increased in the range of the magnetic fields from 3273 to 3286 Gs and D was higher than 1. This technology or, in other words, radappertization, is an industrial sterilization of food products for long storage at positive temperatures, which precludes re-contamination by microorganisms. After irradiation, the fivefold increase in the amplitude of the ESR signal was observed and two additional signals with small amplitude appeared. The fact of irradiation/absence of irradiation of the samples was also confirmed by calculation according to GOST R 52529-2006. The need for further research of meat and meat products by the EPR method is obvious: to determine a fact of sterilization or radurization, to determine a radiation dose, to accumulate reliably established information on radiation sensitivity and to develop a methodological base for the use of an EPR spectrometer.