Effects of ionising irradiation on quality and sensory attributes of ready‐to‐eat dry fermented sausages enriched with folic acid

Summary Dry fermented sausages have been manufactured with different concentrations of folic acid (FA) (0.6, 1.2 and 2.4 mg per 100 g of original mixture). Then, they were prepared as ready-to-eat meat products by using E-beam radiation (2, 3 and 4 kGy) to increase their safety. The stability of this vitamin as well as the physico-chemical properties, microbiological counts, colour, texture and sensory properties of the sausages was studied after irradiation. The more important changes were observed in hardness, which increased with increasing FA amount; in contrast, colour was similar in all batches, independently of FA concentration or irradiation doses applied. The sensory properties of these products were judged acceptable to tasters, although significant differences were observed between the taste of nonirradiated and irradiated samples with 3 kGy. The ionising treatment caused a decrease of 15–29% in the FA content only at the highest dose (4 kGy). Despite this loss, this new product is suitable for assuring the daily intake of FA recommended as healthy (400 μg).