title: Free D-amino acids determination in ready-to-eat cooked ham irradiated with electron-beam by indirect chiral HPLC.
abstract: Potential racemization of L-amino acids (AA) in ready-to-eat (RTE) cooked ham after hygienization by electron-beam irradiation between 1 and 8kGy was studied. An indirect chiral method based on the derivatization reaction of AA with o-phthaldialdehyde and N-acetyl-L-cysteine followed by reversed-phase HPLC and fluorimetric detection was applied to detect ten enantiomeric pairs of free AA (Asp, Ser, Thr, Ala, Tyr, Val, Trp, Phe and Leu). Five of the D-AA were not found in any of the samples analyzed; the other five remaining D-AA (D-Asp, D-Ser, D-Ala, D-Val and D-Leu) were detected both in irradiated and non-irradiated cooked ham samples, their content being in the range 1.25-13.79μg/g. Although significant differences appeared for a few of the samples and doses, no positive correlation between the D-AA content and the irradiation doses was observed. Therefore, the electron-beam irradiation technique could be useful for sanitation of packed RTE cooked ham at doses allowed by WHO and EU, since it remains chemically safe to eat.
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gil-Díaz
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Santos-Delgado
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rubio-Barroso
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Polo-Díez