A nuclear accident (e.g., Fukushima), and, in particular, the transport of animals within a radiation-affected area can lead to a whole-body, or partial external irradiation, followed by oxidative stress, which could result in subsequent meat quality changes. In this experiment, live pigs were exposed to half-body irradiation by an external dose of 1.0 Gy. The caudal half of the animal's body was irradiated. After their slaughter, samples from the muscle tissue of musculus semimembranosus and musculus longissimus lumborum et thoracis at the upper margin of musculus gluteus medius (irradiated body half) and at the 3rd-4th thoracic vertebra (non-irradiated half) were collected to determine the meat quality parameters. A significant difference (P < 0.05) was observed only in the meat colour parameter (a*) in the irradiated group of pigs. If there is no internal contamination, and the half-body exposure to the external radiation dose does not exceed 1 Gy, pigs from an irradiation-affected area may be used for human consumption.

• Keywords
• drip loss, ionising radiation, meat colour, pH, pig,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

Meat of wild boar with an intial (137)Cs activity concentration of 103 Bq kg(-1) of fresh mass was treated by brining. Dry-salting reduced the (137)Cs activity only by about 12-18%. Subsequent brining was done by using both pure sodium chloride and a mixture of sodium chloride and potassium nitrate. After double-brine exchange, the (137)Cs activity concentration was reduced by at least 72%. The double-brine exchanges were done for two time intervals (the first each 24 h and the second each 7 days). There were no differences in the (137)Cs activity reduction for these two time intervals. From the technological point of view, the repeated exchange of the brine solution represents a relative easy method of (137)Cs activity reduction in contaminated pork meat.

• MeSH
• Food Analysis MeSH
• Sodium Chloride chemistry   MeSH
• Nitrates chemistry   MeSH
• Food Handling methods   MeSH
• Meat * radiation effects   MeSH
• Osmolar Concentration MeSH
• Swine * MeSH
• Food Contamination, Radioactive analysis   MeSH
• Cesium Radioisotopes analysis   chemistry   MeSH
• Solutions MeSH
• Potassium Compounds chemistry   MeSH
• Salts chemistry   MeSH
• Animals MeSH
• Check Tag
• Animals MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Names of Substances
• brine MeSH Browser
• Sodium Chloride MeSH
• Nitrates MeSH
• potassium nitrate MeSH Browser
• Cesium Radioisotopes MeSH
• Solutions MeSH
• Potassium Compounds MeSH
• Salts MeSH