Scientists from Moscow State University have developed an effective method that allows detecting chicken meat irradiated before sale and assessing the dose of radiation received. The results of the study were published in the journal Food Chemistry.
According to the IAEA, the use of radiation in the food industry can increase the shelf life of products and prevent the reproduction of pathogenic microorganisms and insects. This method is an alternative to the use of antibiotics in products of animal origin. With the correct selection of radiation intensity and exposure time, the treatment does not affect the taste of products and does not harm human health. Currently, the practice of radiation treatment of food is used in more than 60 countries around the world.
For different products, there are optimal doses of radiation, which are determined by their biochemical, mechanical, and structural characteristics, explained experts from Moscow State University. If the radiation dose does not meet the established standards, the product may be either insufficiently irradiated or, conversely, receive an excessive amount of radiation. This can affect not only the taste and smell of the product but also its safety for consumption.
Any product is a complex biochemical composition, so it is difficult to find a single marker substance that accurately indicates the absorbed dose of radiation. External influence is reflected in the overall, total indicator, which should be compared with a database of samples for which the radiation dose is known. Then the dose of an unknown sample can be found, like a person by fingerprints.
Specialists from the chemical and physical faculties of Moscow State University have created an accessible and economical method for determining the level of radiation in chicken meat. The method consists of adding dyes to the extract of chicken breasts and measuring the color after adding an oxidizing agent.
We mix the aqueous extract of meat and reagents, obtaining a colored sample. The color of the mixture changes over time depending on the dose of radiation that the chicken breast received. Using machine learning methods, the shades of color are recognized and compared with the "palette by doses".
Currently, other approaches to controlling the radiation safety of goods are used in the production sector, which require significant financial investments and do not provide the required efficiency, as Shik noted.
The use of chemical reactions instead of complex instrumental methods, according to experts, will simplify and reduce the cost of monitoring in the food industry.
However, it is worth considering that the development of such a methodology should be carried out for each type of product separately. The first task is to find suitable reactions, the second is to choose the optimal method for analyzing color data. We did this for chicken meat.
In the future, experts intend to increase the number of chicken breast samples, studying products from a larger number of manufacturers. In addition, they plan to apply their methodology to other types of goods.
Earlier, Russian scientists discovered beneficial microorganisms in the digestive tract of pheasants that can produce natural antibacterial substances known as bacteriocins. These microorganisms can become the basis for the development of new biological products for agriculture, which will help increase animal productivity and strengthen their immunity.
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