Post-slaughtering storage of pork meat is important to improve the flavor and texture profile. Although irradiation of meat improves the keeping qualities of red meat, less work was done on the effect of quality in irradiated pork leg meat during post-slaughtering storage. Therefore, this study was done to compare low dosages of single beam irradiation treated pork leg meat on eating quality parameters over the nontreated meat stored at different storage temperatures. Freshly slaughter pig carcasses were brought to the irradiation unit for treatment. Pork leg meat was treated at 2 kGy with single beam. Treated (2 kGy) and non-treated pork leg meat were kept in three different temperatures as 2, 10 and 25°C for 1, 3 and 5 days and analyzed for cooking loss, shear force, color and nitrogenous flavor compounds. Cooking loss in day 5 in irradiated pork leg (30.29) was significantly lower than the control (33.27) (p<0.05). Shear force of treated (1.93) and non-treated (1.29) pork leg meat after day 5 had significant difference (p<0.05). “L*” and “b*” values of pork leg meat had significant difference at day 5 compared non treated leg meat (p<0.05) whereas the “a*” value was increased with storage time and temperature. Hypoxanthine level was significantly lower in pork leg meat at day 5 in treated (16.07) and non-treated (24.59) meats at 25°C (p<0.05) whereas the changes in AMP, IMP and Inosine was not significantly difference (p>0.05). As conclusion, post-slaughtering storage and irradiation with single beam of 2 kGy could ensure the meat quality of leg pork at even higher storage temperatures, with cooking loss, tenderness, flavor and the color which will be benefited in the processing industry.

Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
    1. Sample preparation
    2. Shear force analysis
    3. Cooking loss of meat
    4. Color values
    5. Analysis of nucleotide-related flavor compounds
    6. Statistical analysis
Results and Discussion
    1. Shear force of pork leg meat
    2. Cooking loss
    3. Color of meat
    4. Changes in the flavor compounds
References

• Edirisinghe Dewage Nalaka Sandun Abeyrathne(Department of Animal Science, Uva Wellassa University/Department of Animal Science & Technology, Sunchon National University)
• Ki-Chang Nam(Department of Animal Science & Technology, Sunchon National University) Corresponding author