Treatment of meats with ionising radiations. XI.—changes in the texture of meat

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Abstract
The treatment of pork or beef with ionising radiation resulted in a tenderisation, as judged by a taste panel after cooking, detectable at a dose of 2 Mrads and marked at 4 Mrads. Irradiation after a partial cooking produced less effect.The solubility of the collagen in intact beef muscle was increased by irradiation, as was that of rat tail tendon immersed in meat juice or enclosed in meat tissue. Both collagens became less soluble when irradiated in saline. The solubilisation of collagen was considered to be the result of an indirect action of radicals formed in water, prevented by the presence of the soluble constituents of the meat. These changes in collagen did not account for the whole of the effect of radiation on texture.