Effect of E-beam treatment on the bioaccessibility of folic acid incorporated to ready to eat meat products

- Bioaccessibility of folic acid from conventional and RTE meat products was studied.
- RTE products were manufactured using E-beam treatment as non-thermal technology.
- The bioaccessibility was studied using the TIM-1 in vitro dynamic model of TNO.
- Bioaccessibility ranged between 61 and 82% depending on the type of meat product.
- E-beam increased the bioaccesibility a 20%, except in dry fermented sausages (1%).

Meat products are a potential matrix to fortify with folic acid (FA). In previous studies the effect of E-beam treatment on the stability of FA in ready to eat (RTE) meat products has been described. However, the FA bioaccessibility in both traditional and treated (3 kGy) RTE meat products has not yet been studied. We investigated the availability for intestinal absorption (bioaccessibility) of FA using a dynamic gastrointestinal model (TIM system). Three different types of meat products, hamburgers, cooked sausages and dry fermented sausages, initially fortified with 24 μg/g FA were tested as freshly prepared products and as RTE products. The bioaccessibility of FA during the passage through the TIM system was high for all three products, irrespective the E-beam treatment. From hamburgers the bioaccessibility was 82% and 100%, from cooked sausages, 61 and 79% and from dry fermented sausages 81 and 82%, with or without e-beam treatment, respectively.