ElsevierCarcel Carrión, JA.; Benedito Fort, JJ.; Cambero, M.; M. C. CABEZA; Ordóñez, J. (2015). Modeling and optimization of the E-beam treatment of chicken steaks and hamburgers, considering food safety, shelf-life, and sensory quality. The present work was carried out to model the effect of E-beam treatment on the safety, 13shelf-life and sensory attributes of two poultry products, steaks and hamburgers, and to 14 optimize the radiation treatment. The inactivation of Salmonella spp. by means of different 15 radiation doses was modeled using a first order kinetics. The shelf-life was studied by 16 periodically counting the bacterial number in samples. For the modelling of experimental data, 17 only the exponential phase of growth was taking into account. The effect of the radiation dose 18 on the sensory attributes (appearance, odor and flavor) and instrumental color (L*, a* and b* 19 parameters) was modeled using the Gompertz function and the Activation-Inactivation or 20 linear models. The optimization of the radiation dose was carried out by maximizing the 21 sensory scores of samples and minimizing the instrumental color changes. The safety and the 22 shelf-life of samples were assured by introducing constraints in the optimization problem. In 23 the case of hamburgers, the optimum calculated dose was 2.04 kGy, which guarantees the 24 safety of the product and provides the best combination of sensory and instrumental 25 attributes. As regards the steaks, the optimum assessed dose was 1.11 kGy, significantly lower 26 than for hamburgers. 27