Effects of gamma and electron beam irradiation on the microbial quality of steamed tofu rolls

The effectiveness of two kinds of radiation processing, gamma and electron beam (ebeam) irradiation, for the inactivation of Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella enteritidis and Listeria innocua which were inoculated in pre-sterilised steamed tofu rolls was studied. The corresponding effects of both irradiation types on total bacterial counts (TBCs) in commercial steamed tofu rolls available in the market were also examined. The microbiological results demonstrated that gamma irradiation yielded D10 values of 0.20, 0.24 and 0.22 kGy for S. aureus, S. enteritidis and L. innocua, respectively. The respective D10 values for ebeam irradiation were 0.31, 0.35 and 0.27 kGy. Gamma and ebeam irradiation yielded D10 values of 0.48 and 0.43 kGy for total bacterial counts in commercial steamed tofu rolls, respectively. The results suggest that ebeam irradiation has similar effect on decreasing TBCs in steamed tofu rolls, and gamma irradiation is slightly more effective than ebeam irradiation in reducing the populations of pathogenic bacteria. The observed differences in D10-values between them might be due to the significant differences in dose rate applied, and radiation processing of soybean products to improve their microbial quality could be available for other sources of protein. - Highlights: ► Our research material is steamed tofu rolls, a kind of soybean products. ► We compared the effects of gamma ray and electron beam irradiation. ► Total bacterial and three strains of pathogens are studied in our research. ► We reported electron beam has similar decontamination effect as gamma ray. ► Radiation processing of soybean products to improve their microbial quality could be available for other sources of protein.