The degradation of nucleotides in cured ready-to-eat (RTE) as well as uncured raw and cooked turkey
meat products by irradiation were determined to evaluate the potential impact of nucleotides on the
taste changes in irradiated turkey meat. Four irradiation doses (0, 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5 kGy) were applied to
cured RTE and uncured turkey meat products, and the amounts of nucleotides and their degradation
products were measured. Results showed that irradiation had a significant impact to the amount of
nucleotides (adenosine diphosphate, adenosine monophosphate and inosine monophosphate) and the
breakdown of these nucleotides (inosine and hypoxanthine) in uncured turkey meat when irradiated
at3.0 kGy, which might attribute to uric acid and other com-pounds formation. The increase in K-value (the percentage of inosine and hypoxanthine over the total
content of adenosine triphosphate) at lower irradiation dose in uncured cooked than raw turkey meat,
which indicated that cooked meat is more susceptible to oxidation. But little effect was found on the
nucleotides and nucleotides degradation products in cured RTE turkey meat products because of the
antioxidant effect of sodium nitrite.
©2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved