Effect of antioxidants on thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, psychrotrophic bacteria and functional properties of mechanically deboned chicken meat irradiated with Cobalto-60 and electron beam sources

Samples of MDCM with skin were divided into three groups: control (without antioxidants), Antioxidant 1 (Sodium Polyphosphate and Sodium Ascorbate and Antioxidant 2 (Rosemary Extract and α-Tocopherol. The three batches of samples were divided into nine groups: no antioxidant and non-irradiated (C), with antioxidant A1 and non-irradiated (A1), with antioxidant A2 and non-irradiated (A2) without antioxidant and irradiated in Cobalt-60 source (Co), with antioxidant A1 irradiated in Cobalt 60 source (A1Co) with antioxidant A2 irradiated in Cobalt-60 source (A2Co) with antioxidant A1 irradiated in Electron beam (A1Eb) and with antioxidant A2 irradiated in Electron beam (A2Eb). The samples was conditioned in a transparent, low density frozen overnight at a temperature of -18 ± 1 deg C in a chamber, and irradiated in this state with a dose of 3.0 kGy, used two sources of radiation: Cobalt-60 (3.1 kGy/h) and electron beam (7.86 kGy/s). After this process, the samples were evaluated during the refrigeration period (2 ± 1 deg C) for 11 days for the following analysis: total psychrotrophic bacteria count and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and the analysis of functional properties were performed after the irradiation process. The use of the combination of rosemary antioxidant and α-tocopherol were able to significantly decrease TBARS values caused by the irradiation of samples in MDCM cobalt-60 sources and electron beam, and show a synergetic effect to processing with ionizing radiation to reduce of psychrotrophic bacteria count. The use of irradiation processing of MDCM did not negatively affect the functional properties studied. (author)