Effect of Gamma Irradiation on Quality of Meats and Meat Products

Irradiation offers an effective and simple means to extend shelf-life of meat and improve processing properties of meat products. Many researches have been conducted to evaluate the effects of irradiation on meats and meat products. There were some interesting reports such as increase of redness and tenderness of meat and decrease of carcinogenic N-nitrosamines and residual nitrite in cured meat products by irradiation. And, the safety of irradiated products have been also studied. Lipid oxidation and off-odor induced by irradiation can be minimized by appropriate controls of irradiation and storage condition such as addition of antioxidants or oxygen exclusion packaging. The objective of this paper is to introduce the effect of gamma irradiation on quality of meats and meat products reported from the previous researches.