The growth in national production of rabbit meat demands greater knowledge of the characteristics of the meat, as well as the effects of a process that allows greater conservation of the meat. Frozen cuts of rabbit meat: thigh, ham and loin, treated with two types of antibiotics (norfloxacyn and ciprofloxacin), were irradiated in doses of 0, 3 and 6 kGy, and the levels of heme and nonheme iron in the cuts were determined. The irradiation doses employed were influential on the levels of heme and nonheme iron, and the dose of 3 kGy was the one that presented the largest values, independent of the type of antibiotic used. For heme iron, the antibiotic norfloxacyn presented the largest values and for nonheme iron the largest values were noted for the antibiotic ciprofloxacyn.
irradiation; meat; rabbit; iron
