Stability of vitamin e content of γ-irradiated biscuits

Abstract

The technology of food irradiation is seen by the industry as a means of ensuring food safety, since it exposes foods to ionizing radiation that kills insects, moulds and bacteria. The need to eliminate bacterial pathogens from read-to-eat food products must always be balanced with the maintenance of product quality. In addition to determining the effective ionizing radiation doses required for pathogen elimination the effects of irradiation on product chemistry, nutritional value and quality must also been determined. Vitamin E (α-tocopherol) is one of the most potent natural lipophilic antioxidants commonly present in the human diet. As it is considered a free radical scavenger there is a growing concern that irradiation might reduce the vitamin E content of food products prepared with ingredients rich in any of the dietary source of the vitamin. This work describes the effects of ionizing radiation on the vitamin E content of some biscuits commercially found in the market. Three lots of biscuits were used. Irradiation was performed in a 60Co Gammacell 220 source, dose rate of about 3.5kGy/h at doses of 1kGy and 3kGy. For vitamin E determination samples were saponified with ethanolic potassium hydroxide in the presence of pyrogallol, and the tocopherols were extracted with petroleum ether. The absorbance was measured at 520 nm. From the obtained results it is possible to conclude that there was a notorious stability of the vitamin content of the biscuits submitted to γ-irradiation at the assayed doses.