Influence of ionizing radiation on the antioxidant activity of roe deer meat

The increase in the shelf life of food raw materials and food products is one of the priorities in the development of food industry. Ionizing radiation is used to increase the storage capacity of meat raw materials. When using ionizing radiation, the number of vegetative microorganisms that cause damage to meat and meat products is reduced. The fundamental document on the application of the radiation technology for fresh and frozen meat is GOST 33820-2016 “Fresh and frozen meat”, as well as “The instruction on irradiation for the purpose of elimination of parasites, pathogenic and other microorganisms, “which will be put into effect in July 1, 2017 in Russia. The meat of wild ungulates, roe deer in particular, is characterized by a high content of muscle tissue (74.6-74.8 %); it is highly competitive with beef and lamb in terms of nutritional and biological value, and has antioxidant activity (AOA) due to its dipeptide content: carnosine (β-alanyl-L-histidine), homocarnosine (γ-amino-butyryl-L-histidine) and anserine (β-alanyl-1-methyl-L-histidine), tocopherols, ubiquinone, sulfur-containing compounds and other biologically active substances. But at the same time the treatment of roe deer meat by ionizing radiation can lead to the decrease of antioxidant activity. The aim of the present research is to define the influence of irradiation of roe deer meat on the content of antioxidants in it. By experiment it is found out that the concentration of antioxidants in meat depends on the radiation dose. When the irradiation dose is increased from 3 kGy to 12 kGy, the AOA decreases significantly by 30.9 %; the correlation between the concentration of antioxidants in roe deer meat and the dose of irradiation is 0.99 (the degree of statistical coupling power according to the Chaddock's scale is very high).