TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Table of Contents v
Chapter One
1.1
Introduction 1
1.2
Food Irradiation
Developments 3
Chapter Two
2.1
Food Irradiation 6
2.2
Labeling 11
2.3
Regulations 12
2.4
Consumer Acceptance 15
2.5
Health concerns about
Irradiated Food 17
Chapter Three
3.1
Irradiation
Technologies 19
3.1.1
Electron – Beam
Irradiation 19
3.1.2
Gamma Irradiation 20
3.1.3
X-Ray Irradiation 21
3.2
Effects of Irradiation
in Food 21
3.3
Effect of Irradiation
on Food Packaging 26
3.4
Prospects of Food
Irradiation 27
Chapter Four
4.1
Safety of Irradiated
Food 29
4.2
Determining the Safety
of Irradiated Foods 31
4.3
Safety of Food
Irradiation Facilities 34
Chapter Five
5.1
Conclusion and
Recommendation 37
References 39
CHAPTER ONE
1.1
INTRODUCTION
Food Irradiation is the process of
exposing food to ionizing radiation to disinfect, sanitize, sterilize, preserve
food or to provide insect disinfestation. (wikipedia.org)
Food irradiation is sometimes referred
to as cold pasteurization or electronic pasteurization to emphasize its
similarity to the process of pasteurization. Like pasteurization of milk and
pressure cooking of canned foods, treating food with ionizing radiation can
kill bacteria and parasites that would otherwise cause food borne diseases. (wikipedia.org;
www.cdc.gov)
By irradiating food, depending on the
dose, some or all of the microbes, fungi, viruses or insects present are
killed. This prolongs the life of the food in cases where microbial spoilage is
the limiting factor in shelf life. Some foods (e.g. herbs and spices) are
irradiated at such high doses (5kGy or more) that they show microbial counts
reduced by several orders of magnitude. It has also been shown that irradiation
can delay the ripening or sprouting of fruits and vegetables and replace the
need for pesticides.
Studies have shown that when
Irradiation is used as approved on foods:
·
Disease-causing
germs are reduced or eliminated.
·
The
food does not become radioactive
·
Dangerous
substances do not appear in foods
·
The
nutritional value of the food is essentially unchanged. (www.cdc.gov)
In the food industries, specific types
of radiation treatments are used, they are Radurization, Radicidation, and
Radappertization. However, in the actual process of irradiation, three
different irradiation technologies are used namely; gamma irradiation,
electron-beam irradiation and x-ray radiation. (www.cdc.gov)
The dose of irradiation is usually
measured in a unit called the Gray, abbreviated (Gy). This is a measure of the
amount of energy transferred to food, microbes or other substances being
irradiated. To measure the amount of irradiation something is exposed to,
photographic film is exposed to irradiation at the same time.
The killing effect of irradiation on
microbes is measured in D-values. One D-value is the amount of irradiation to
kill 90% of that organism. For example, it takes 0.3kGy to kill 90% of Escherichia
Coli, so the D-value of E.coli is 0.3 kGy. (www.cdc.gov).
A distinctive logo has been developed
for use on food packaging, in order to identify a product as irradiated. This
symbol is called the “radura” and is used internationally to mean that the food
in the package has been irradiated. (www.cdc.gov)
1.2
FOOD IRRADIATION DEVELOPMENTS
There is a widening gap in the less
developed countries (LDC’s) of Africa, Asia and Latin America between the
growth rates of population and food production. Yet, in LDC’s over a quarter of
the harvested food is lost due to wastage and spoilage. In Nigeria, very high
losses of foods, especially highly perishable foods such as fish, fruits,
vegetable and some dietary staples such as yam, maize, millet and sorghum occur
in the time lag between harvest and consumption and during storage. There is,
therefore, the need for greater utilization of the available appropriate
technologies of food preservation in these countries (Aworh, 1986).
In the last three decades a new
technology, food irradiation, has been developed which has the potential of
reducing food losses in LDC’s (Aworh, 1986).
Research on Food irradiation dates
back to the turn of the 20th century. The first US and British patents were
issued for use of ionizing radiation to kill bacteria in foods in 1905. Food
irradiation gained significant momentum in 1947 when researchers found that
meat and other foods could be sterilized by high energy and the process was
seen to have potential to preserve food for military troops in the field. To
establish the safety and effectiveness of the irradiation process, the U.S. Army
began a series of experiments with fruits, vegetables, dairy products, fish and
meat in the early 1950’s. (www.ccr.uc
davis.edu).
In 1958, Congress gave the FDA
authority over the food irradiation process under the 1958 Food Additive
Amendment to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The FDA has approved food
irradiation process for wheat, potatoes, pork, spices, poultry, fruits,
vegetables and red meat (www.ccr.uc
davis.edu).
Food irradiation was recognised by the
United Nations which established the Joint Expert Committee on Food Irradiation.
Their first meeting was in 1964. The committee concluded in 1980 that
“irradiation of foods up to the dose of 10kGy introduces no special nutritional
or microbiological problems”. (www.ccr.uc
davis.edu).
In 1999, the World Health Organisation
determined the dose limitation at very high dose is palatability etc. Irradiation
should be considered parallel to cooking in all aspects of safety. (www.ccr.uc
davis.edu).
Tremendous progress has been made, in
the past few decades, in the design and construction of safe radiation
facilities and chances of radiation accidents are now very remote provided that
personnel have been properly trained in the operation of radiation facilities
(Aworh, 1986).
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