In terms of food irradiation, ionizing radiation in the form of gamma radiation or electron beam is currently allowed and employed as a non-thermal procedure for ensuring food safety and quality. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of radiation on viability of certain isolated food borne pathogenic bacteria like E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus mirabilis, Listeria monocytogenes, and Enterococcus faecalis in meat products.
In food irradiation, the requested dose of D10 value to inactivate 90% of microbial population was 0.39, 0.49, 0.45, 0.54, and 0.57 kGy, being exposed to gamma radiation, and 0.41, 0.52, 0.48, 0.58, and 0.63 kGy for electron beam respectively suggesting that gamma radiation is more efficient than electron beam irradiation. The effect of radiation on the bacterial load have been assessed by injecting the smoky flesh samples with a cocktail of abovementioned bacteria in presence of natural microflora, and then subjected to 2.0, 4.0, and 6.0 kGy. These bacteria were inhibited to undetectable levels (>10 CFU/g) and total bacterial counts were greatly reduced at 4.0 kGy from either gamma or an electron beam radiation, indicating that this irradiation dose can be used to control some foodborne pathogenic bacteria of public health concern. E. coli was the most sensitive tested bacteria to irradiation, whereas Enterococcus faecalis was the most resistant.