Irradiation

FOOD IRRADIATION

Approximately 25% of all food products are lost after harvesting due to insect, vermin, and spoilage. Currently, a significant number of chemicals are used on food products for preventing/preserving insects losses. In roots and tubers, sprouting can be a major cause of losses. In developing countries like my own country Ghana in West Africa where handling, transportation, and storage conditions are less adequate in the food producing areas than seen in the developed countries like the United States, these losses are significantly greater. In addition, food borne diseases cause by pathogenic bacteria result in an estimated 9,000 deaths each year, and 24 million cases of illness annually in the United States alone according to research. Therefore, no other choice was met to curb this menace than food irradiation which has the potential to significantly reduce both food production losses and food and food borne illness.

Food irradiation is a food safety technology that can eliminate disease-causing germs from foods. Like pasteurization of milk, and pressure-cooking of canned foods, treating foods with ionizing radiation can kill bacteria that would otherwise cause food borne disease. Ionizing radiation is a radiant energy that has the ability to break chemicals bonds. There are three main types of ionizing radiation that can potentially be used in food irradiation: electron beams (machine generated), X-rays (machine generated), and gamma rays(occur naturally from radioactive decay of Cesium 137 or Cobalt 60) Cobalt 60 is most commonly used for food irradiation. According to my findings, currently, there are number of even non-food related products being irradiated such as; wine corks, hospital supplies, cosmetics, medical products, packing materials among others, mostly to achieve non thermal sterilization. The radiation dose refers to the amount of gamma rays absorbed by the product and is measured in Grays(gy). 1 Gy = 1 joule of absorbed...