NMR and gas chromatography results reveal a dose-dependent
effect of irradiation on the fatty acid profile. A trend toward an increase
in the amount of saturated fatty acids and a decrease in the
amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the triacylglycerol composition
of the irradiated beef samples compared with the unirradiated
one was established with increasing the irradiation dose.
Thus, radiation-induced changes in the fatty acid profile can be
used to monitor irradiation of lipid-containing foods.
Additionally, the linear correlation of the observed changes in
the TSFA amount with the applied irradiation dose facilitates its
assignment; therefore, a previously obtained TSFA from the NMR
analysis allows one to predict or to approximate the absorbed dose.
The present study demonstrates that 1H NMR spectroscopy can
be used as a simple, very fast and complementary tool to the cumbersome
and time-consuming GC/MS analytical method EN 1785
or/and EN 1784, respectively, due to its capability of immediate
quantifying saturated, mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids in
irradiated meat without any sample work-up.