ESR SPECTROSCOPIC TECHNIQUE OF TESTING FOR IRRADIATION OF CHICKEN

For chicken, detection of free radicals produced by ionizing radiation in the bone matrix, by the technique of ESR (Electron Spin Resonance) is described. Among these, a series of experiments was carried out in order to investigate the effect of irradiation dose and length of sto rage on the strength of this signal. Seventy-two pairs of drumsticks f rom broilers of the same age and reared in the same commercial facilit y were used. 24 pairs of drumsticks in each batch were further divided into six groups and five of them were irradiated with one of five dos es 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 kGy while the remaining group was not irradiated and served as control. Following irradiation, all materials were stor ed for 0, 7, 14; and 21 days at refrigeration conditions (+4 degrees C ). All samples were prepared by the method described by. Stevenson and Gray (Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 48, 261-267, 198 9): Then,Varian E9 X-band ESR spectrometer was used to measure the int ensity of the signals. As a:result of this work, firstly, there was a clear detectable difference in the shape of signals from irradiated an d non-irradiated samples, and signals from irradiated ones have a char acteristic shape. The different length of storage did not significantl y affect the response of ESR signal strength along the shelf-life of c hicken. Moreover, it was found out that, there was a highly significan t linear relationship between dose received and ESR signal strength. ( C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.