Mitsuru Yoshida, Mayumi Hachinohe, Takayuki Miura, Yusuke Sugizaki, Ryusuke Fujimoto, Kazuhiro Chiku, Shioka Hamamatsu
Journal of food protection 85(9) 1258-1264 2022年6月10日
Wild boar meat containing radioactive cesium (Cs) of approximately 1000 Bq/kg (134Cs+137Cs) was processed into bacon, sausage, and ham. In order to understand the concentration and quantity change of radioactive Cs, processing factor (Pf) and food processing retention factor (Fr) were calculated. The radioactive Cs quantity in the meat did not reduce during smoking. The dehydration-related meat mass reduction during smoking without decrease of radioactive Cs led to Cs condensation in the bacon compared with the raw rib meat before processing, resulting in a Pf of 1.18. Soaking in liquid, such as pickling in liquid and desalting or boiling in water, effectively removed radioactive Cs by leakage into water. Therefore, the Fr value of the boiled ham produced from a loin meat block through the above-described three liquid-soaking processes was 0.27. The Pf value of the boiled ham was 0.30 due to the meat block mass reduction after boiling as the result of dehydration along with the protein thermal denaturation-related muscle tissue shrinkage. The steamed ham Fr value was 0.53 since the removal of the radioactive Cs was less efficient by steaming than by boiling. The Pf value of the steamed ham was 0.54, almost the same as the Fr value, as the mass decrease rate was the same as the radioactive Cs decrease rate by steaming. The Fr and the Pf values of the boiled sausage, of which processing did not include soaking in the pickling liquid, were 0.64 and 0.62, respectively. The steaming of the sausage meat did not remove radioactive Cs during the dehydration-related mass reduction leading to Fr and Pf values of 1.01 and 1.17, respectively. As the result of this study, processing to boiled ham was the most effective measure for reducing both radioactive Cs quantity and concentration in raw meat. Processing to bacon and steamed sausage showed no Cs quantity reduction with the moisture loss resulting in Cs condensation compared to the raw material.