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Food Irradiation: Can it Make Food Safer?

Food Irradiation: Can it Make Food Safer?. History What is irradiation? Sources and facilities Doses used for foods Benefits Wholesomeness Quality Cost. History of Food Irradiation. 1921 Schwartz publishes studies on lethal effect of irradiation on Trichinella in pork

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Food Irradiation: Can it Make Food Safer?

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  1. Food Irradiation: Can it Make Food Safer? • History • What is irradiation? • Sources and facilities • Doses used for foods • Benefits • Wholesomeness • Quality • Cost

  2. History of Food Irradiation • 1921 Schwartz publishes studies on lethal effect of irradiation on Trichinella in pork • 1953 “Atoms for Peace” program launches food irradiation research in U.S. • 1955 Research in Europe begins • 1958 Amendment to FD&C act of 1938 regarding food additives

  3. History of Food Irradiation • 1976 Joint expert committee (IAEA, WHO, and FAO) declares food irradiation a process • 1980 Same expert committee declares foods irradiated at up to 10kGy to be wholesome • 1997 Same expert committee declares foods irradiated at ANY DOSE to be as wholesome and safe as foods treated by any conventional processing treatment

  4. Who EndorsesFood Irradiation?

  5. Who in the World is Irradiating Food?

  6. What is Irradiation?

  7. Effect of Irradiationon Atoms Incident photon The “Compton Effect”

  8. Effect of Irradiationon Molecules

  9. Effect of Irradiationon Microorganisms

  10. Sources Used for Food Irradiation • Gamma rays • produced by Co60 or Cs137 • penetrate ~3 ft. material • Accelerated electrons • produced by linear accelerator • penetrate ~3/4 in. (1.5 in. double-sided) • X-rays • produced by linear accelerator • penetrate ~3 ft. material

  11. A Word About Radioactivity • Why FDA permits only Co60orCs137 • Co60 has 1.3 MeV of Energy/photon • Cs137 has 0.67 MeV of Energy/photon • How much energy needs to be applied to a material for it to become radioactive?

  12. A Word About Nuclear Waste • Life cycle of Co60 27Co59 + 0n1 27Co6028Ni60 beta gamma

  13. Facilities - Gamma * product already packaged * dosimetry recorded * automated processing * physical separation

  14. Facilities - Linear Accelerator Electron Gun

  15. Irradiation Dose • Amount of energy absorbed per kg of material • kGy = kilo Gray • Ranges: • High (sterilization): >10 kGy • Medium (pasteurization): 1-10 kGy • Low (disinfestation): <1 kGy

  16. Applications Medium dose High dose Low dose

  17. Current Approvals in U.S.

  18. Benefits of Food Irradiation • Eliminates vegetative cells of: • Escherichia coli O157:H7 • Salmonella • Listeria monocytogenes • Campylobacter jejuni • Others

  19. Benefits of Food Irradiation • Shelf-life Extension

  20. The Question of Wholesomeness Total of 1221 studies conducted up to 1979 on wholesomeness of 278 different foods fed to a variety of animals resulted in no significant difference between irradiated and nonirradiated foods in terms of: toxigenicity, pathogenicity, or mutagenicity

  21. Summary ofUS Army/Raltech Study • Requested by FDA in 1976 • 7 years, $8M cost • Rats, dogs, mice fed a variety of foods for 4 generations • Frozen vs. Canned vs. Irradiated (56kGy) • Highest incidence of neoplasms (frozen food!) • Lowest fertility after 3 generations (canned food!) • Irradiated food caused NO • reduction in offspring, increase in stillbirths

  22. Quality of Irradiated Foods

  23. Cost of Irradiated Foods Dose Temperature Thickness Time Source Throughput Transport COST $0.02-$0.07/lb ?

  24. Future of Food Irradiation? A Question of Safety and Choice.

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