Volatiles production and lipid oxidation in irradiated cooked sausage as related to packaging and storage

Irradiation dose affected production of volatiles in vacuum- and aerobic-packaged cooked pork sausage, but its effect on TBARS was minor. Storage increased production of volatiles and changed their composition only in aerobic-pack aged sausage. Among volatile components, 1-heptene and 1-nonene were influenced most by irradiation dose, and aldehydes by packaging type, TBARS and volatiles of vacuum-packaged irradiated cooked sausage did not correlate well, However, TBARS had very high correlation with amount of aldehydes, total volatiles, ketones and alcohols with long retention times in aerobic-packaged pork sausage. Heptene and 1-nonene could be indicators for irradiation; and propanal, pentanal, and hexanal for oxygen-dependent changes of cooked meat.