Effect of Gamma Irradiation on the Nutritional Quality of Ready to Eat Fast Food

The effects of ionizing radiation on the nutritional and sensoric quality of ready to-eat-fast food were determined. the pre-packed samples of ‘vegetable samosa’ were irradiated with gamma radiations using cobalt-60 source to the dose levels of 1, 2 and 3 kgy, and kept for 2 months period of storage at freezing temperature (-18 0c) along with the non-irradiated control samples. the samples were analyzed for peroxide value (pov), free fatty acid value (ffa), anisidine value (av), vitamin-c and β-carotene contents as well as subjected to sensoric evaluation. the first analysis was carried out just after the irradiation while the subsequent analyses were performed after each 30 days of storage. results revealed that pov, ffa & av were higher in irradiated than the control samples. however, a reversed trend was noted in the case of β-carotene. the vitamin c contents showed a non-significant change in the irradiated as compared to the control samples. the evaluation for sensoric quality was also carried out just after irradiation and then after each one month of storage period. the results showed that the mean appearance and flavor values decreased with high irradiation dose (3 kgy) and long storage period while maximum scores were noted at the doses of 2 kgy