Irradiation is useful for manufacturing ready-to-eat cooked meat products enriched with folic acid.

Abstract Cooked sausages enriched with folic acid (0.6, 1.2 and 2.4 mg/100 g) were manufactured as ready-to-eat (RTE) products using E-beam radiation (2–4 kGy) as a non-thermal technology. The effects of this treatment on the folic acid content, colour, texture and sensory properties of the final products were studied. The characteristics of sausages were not affected by the presence of folic acid, independently of the amount added, and their overall acceptability was good. Doses of 4 kGy caused losses of folic acid close to 20–30% and significantly decreased the sensory quality ( P source of folic acid that can help assure adequate levels of this vitamin in the general population.