Influence of rosemary–tocopherol/packaging combination on meat quality and the survival of pathogens in restructured irradiated pork loins

Irradiated restructured pork loins treated with rosemary–tocopherol/double-packaging had lower TBARS values than vacuum-packaged control after 10 days of refrigerated storage. The rosemary–tocopherol combination, however, had no effect on the production of sulfur volatiles responsible for the irradiation off-odor, and color changes in irradiated pork. V7/A3 double-packaging was effective in reducing the sulfur volatiles significantly. Rosemary–tocopherol combination was highly effective in reducing the volatile hexanal in irradiated restructure pork. Irradiation was effective in reducing Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella typhimurium inoculated on the surface of restructured pork loin in dose-dependent manner. The irradiation D10 values for L. monocytogenes and S. typhimurium were 0.58 and 0.55 kGy, respectively. During the 20 days of refrigerated storage, L. monocytogenes in both nonirradiated and irradiated samples grew gradually, but the number of S. typhimurium decreased. The added rosemary–tocopherol, however, showed little bacteriocidal effects to L. monocytogenes and S. typhimurium.