Effect of Deuterium Oxide (D2O) on Foodborne Amino and Fatty Acid Stability Under Thermal and Irradiation Exposures

Abstract

Deuterium oxide (D2O) has recently gained interest in pharmaceutical, biological and spectroscopic applications. However, its implications have not yet been investigated in foods and macronutrients. This study aimed to examine the effect of D2O on amino-and fatty acids of pasteurized liquid egg white (EW) and egg yolk (EY) products under thermal (T) and irradiation (γ and UV) exposures. First, two test groups (TGEW and TGEY) were prepared with EW and EY, each having three vials for each exposure and the control. TGEW contained 40 mL of EW, while TGEY had 40 mL of EY. Next, 6 mL of D2O (~16% of egg product by weight) was added to all TGs except the controls, the vials were sealed and homogenized using a plate shaker at 20 rpm/250 s. After that, TGs were subjected to thermal (61.5 °C/24 h), γ (5 to 15 kGy/180 min), and UV (280 to 400 nm/120 min) irradiation. Finally, the amino and fatty acid contents were determined using sensitive LC-MS/MS and GC-MS techniques. The results showed that D2O significantly reduced amino acid degradation to T (86.2%), γ (93.0%) and UV (90.8%) exposures, as well as unsaturated fatty acid degradation to γ (71.3%) and UV (91.6%), and saturated fatty acid degradation to T (93.8%) and γ (90.0%), (P<0.05). Overall, our data highlights that D2O, constitutes an interesting next challenge for the preservation, stability, and quality control of foods and macronutrients, taking care of safety and toxicity considerations.