ABSTRACT
Animal-based foods are prone to rapidly contaminate with microorganisms due to higher moisture content along with dense nutrients, such as protein, fat, carbohydrates that are essential for the growth and development of the microbes. Multiple hurdles technologies, such as thermal perishable food communities such as meat from various animals like chicken, beef, and fish. Among the non-thermal preservation treatments of foods, ɣ-radiation, X-rays, and electron beam (EB) irradiation are prominent along with other technologies to reduce the initial microbial level in the food. Moreover, irradiation treatment is widely applicable offering improved safety, enhanced shelf life, and quality of food with better nutritional value than that of thermal-processed food commodities. In this context, various countries now permitted the food irradiation and about a million tons of food is irradiated annually. Additionally, restricted doses of irradiation, such as 1.5 and 3 kGy, was approved for raw and packaged poultry meat, whereas higher dose, 4.5 and 7 kGy, was allowed for fresh and frozen red meat, respectively. The purpose of these irradiation treatments was to eliminate the pathogens with minimum dose rates that has non-significantly affected on the sensory profile of the foods. Moreover, the quality parameters along with hedonic response was affected badly if dose of irradiation was increased from the recommended level. Gamma irradiation below 10 kGy destroys almost all the pathogen without the deteriorating the food quality. Thus, for better results, a combination of hurdle technologies will be used to ensure oxidative stability, pathogen safety, and hedonic profile of food.
