Improving the quality of meat products through gamma irradiation

The aim of the current study is to determine the effect upon experimental meat product samples (flat sausage) prepared with start bacterial cultures, sterilized through irradiation under their biological effectiveness. The experimental types of meat were divided into 3 groups: flat sausage with Megacarn starters, flat sausage with Lactina starters and flat sausage without starters. These groups have been irradiated with 4kGy gamma rays. Biological experiment with white male mice weighted 20 - 30 g, took place. The experimental species were separated into groups of ten and were fed on the studied types of sausages for a period of 20 days. On the 20th day the species were irradiated with 7.5Gy. Mice separately irradiated in advance with 3.5Gy were fed on flat sausage with Megacarn starters. On the 20th day this group was once again irradiated with 7.5Gy. Studied were their weight, survival and the number of leucocytes. Our results showed that after the first irradiation, 40% of the animals fed on non irradiated flat sausage with Megacarn starters died and after the second irradiation 60% of them died. In the group fed on Lactina starters, 100% from the non irradiated and 80% from the irradiated species died. In our study we established that leucocytes restoration was delayed in the mice from the group fed on non irradiated samples. On the 20th day feeding the irradiated animals had a 60% death rate in the group fed on irradiated Megacarn, 10-20% death rate in the group fed on irradiated Lactina and 0% in the control group fed on non irradiated food. The presence of staphylococcus in Megacarn starters gave us grounds to test it independently. The experimental scheme was repeated but the animals were fed on Megacarn water solution. The experimental groups of animals were irradiated with 4kGy and after 20 days on Megacarn water solution they were once again irradiated with 8Gy. During the first irradiation we did not observe dynamical changes in the studied criteria. After the second irradiation the control group resulted in 60% death rate and the group fed on Megacarn water solution resulted in 30-40% death rate.