The International Facility for Food Irradiation Technology (IFFIT) was a research and training centre at the Institute of Atomic Research in Agriculture in Wageningen, Netherlands, [1] sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. [2]
The organisation's aim was to address food loss and food safety in developing countries by speeding up the practical introduction of the food irradiation process. They achieved this by training initiatives, research and feasibility studies. [1]
It was founded in 1978 and was operational until 1990, and during those twelve years over four hundred key personnel from over fifty countries were trained in aspects of food irradiation, [1] making a significant contribution to the development and use of the radiation process. [3] The Facility also co-ordinated research into the technology, economics and implementation of food irradiation, assisted in the assessment of the feasibility of using radiation to preserve foodstuffs, and evaluated trial shipments of irradiated material. [4]
The Facility had a pilot plant with a cobalt-60 source whose activity was 100,000 curies (3,700 TBq ), which was stored underwater. [5] Drums or boxes containing products were placed on rotating tables or conveyor belts, and irradiation took place by raising the source out of the pool.
During IFFIT's first five years of operation, 109 scientists from 40 countries attended six training courses, five of them being general training courses on food irradiation and the sixth being a specialised course on public health aspects. IFFIT also evaluated shipments of irradiated mangoes, spices, avocado, shrimp, onions and garlic, and produced 46 reports. [6] The publications are available on WorldCat. [7]
One trainee noted that Professor D. A. A. Mossel (1918–2004) assisted with the training courses with what he described as "remarkably suggestive lectures and his phenomenal foreign language abilities". [8] From 1988 onwards, Ari Brynjolfsson was director of IFFIT. [9]
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was established in 1957 as an autonomous organization within the United Nations system; though governed by its own founding treaty, the organization reports to both the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations, and is headquartered at the UN Office at Vienna, Austria.
Food irradiation is the process of exposing food and food packaging to ionizing radiation, such as from gamma rays, x-rays, or electron beams. Food irradiation improves food safety and extends product shelf life (preservation) by effectively destroying organisms responsible for spoilage and foodborne illness, inhibits sprouting or ripening, and is a means of controlling insects and invasive pests.
A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility." Examples include lethal effects to individuals, large radioactivity release to the environment, or a reactor core melt. The prime example of a "major nuclear accident" is one in which a reactor core is damaged and significant amounts of radioactive isotopes are released, such as in the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
Irradiation is the process by which an object is exposed to radiation. An irradiator is a device used to expose an object to radiation, notably gamma radiation, for a variety of purposes. Irradiators may be used for sterilizing medical and pharmaceutical supplies, preserving foodstuffs, alteration of gemstone colors, studying radiation effects, eradicating insects through sterile male release programs, or calibrating thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs).
Cobalt-60 (60Co) is a synthetic radioactive isotope of cobalt with a half-life of 5.2714 years. It is produced artificially in nuclear reactors. Deliberate industrial production depends on neutron activation of bulk samples of the monoisotopic and mononuclidic cobalt isotope 59
Co
. Measurable quantities are also produced as a by-product of typical nuclear power plant operation and may be detected externally when leaks occur. In the latter case the incidentally produced 60
Co
is largely the result of multiple stages of neutron activation of iron isotopes in the reactor's steel structures via the creation of its 59
Co
precursor. The simplest case of the latter would result from the activation of 58
Fe
. 60
Co
undergoes beta decay to the stable isotope nickel-60. The activated cobalt nucleus emits two gamma rays with energies of 1.17 and 1.33 MeV, hence the overall equation of the nuclear reaction is: 59
27Co
+ n → 60
27Co
→ 60
28Ni
+ e− + 2 γ
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Walter Mathias Urbain was a distinguished American scientist who helped pioneer food science through innovative research during World War II. His contributions include new patents and methodologies in food engineering, irradiation, and meat science. Because of his contributions, the US government, especially the US Army and the former US Atomic Energy Commission, developed national programs on food irradiation during the 1950s which led to the development of international standards and the application of his methods on a global basis.
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Ari Brynjolfsson was an Icelandic-American physicist known for his work in America on food irradiation and for the development of radiation facilities.
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