Effects of the ionizing radiations, freezing and thawing duration on chicken liver cells quality

All food storage processes modify the food. Irradiation reduces and could stop cell division, avoid infestation, reduce contamination and delay food decomposition. The cold chain is a succession of steps which maintains the food at low temperature. Defrosted food shall never be frozen again, the best way being to consume it quickly then avoiding multiplication and acceleration of microbial growth, which causes decay and nutrients damage. The Comet Assay indicates DNA damage and can then be used to control the overall quality of the food and in a certain extent to evaluate the damage caused by irradiation and storage on liver chicken cells. In this work, different thawing temperatures and radiation doses were checked to establish a 'DNA damage index' by using the Comet Assay. Samples were irradiated in a 60Co irradiator with 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5 kGy radiation doses. Our results showed that no intact cells were detected in frozen samples: however, irradiated liver samples in natura showed some intact cells depending on the applied radiation doses.