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Food preservation includes processes that make food more resistant to microorganism growth and slow the oxidation of fats. This slows down the decomposition and rancidification process. Food preservation may also include processes that inhibit visual deterioration, such as the enzymatic browning reaction in apples after they are cut during food preparation. By preserving food, food waste can be reduced, which is an important way to decrease production costs and increase the efficiency of food systems, improve food security and nutrition and contribute towards environmental sustainability. For instance, it can reduce the environmental impact of food production.
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 radiation dosimeter is a device that measures dose uptake of external ionizing radiation. It is worn by the person being monitored when used as a personal dosimeter, and is a record of the radiation dose received. Modern electronic personal dosimeters can give a continuous readout of cumulative dose and current dose rate, and can warn the wearer with an audible alarm when a specified dose rate or a cumulative dose is exceeded. Other dosimeters, such as thermoluminescent or film types, require processing after use to reveal the cumulative dose received, and cannot give a current indication of dose while being worn.
Acute radiation syndrome (ARS), also known as radiation sickness or radiation poisoning, is a collection of health effects that are caused by being exposed to high amounts of ionizing radiation in a short period of time. Symptoms can start within an hour of exposure, and can last for several months. Early symptoms are usually nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite. In the following hours or weeks, initial symptoms may appear to improve, before the development of additional symptoms, after which either recovery or death follow.
Ionizing radiation, including nuclear radiation, consists of subatomic particles or electromagnetic waves that have sufficient energy to ionize atoms or molecules by detaching electrons from them. Some particles can travel up to 99% of the speed of light, and the electromagnetic waves are on the high-energy portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Brachytherapy is a form of radiation therapy where a sealed radiation source is placed inside or next to the area requiring treatment. Brachy is Greek for short. Brachytherapy is commonly used as an effective treatment for cervical, prostate, breast, esophageal and skin cancer and can also be used to treat tumours in many other body sites. Treatment results have demonstrated that the cancer-cure rates of brachytherapy are either comparable to surgery and external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) or are improved when used in combination with these techniques. Brachytherapy can be used alone or in combination with other therapies such as surgery, EBRT and chemotherapy.
The gray is the unit of ionizing radiation dose in the International System of Units (SI), defined as the absorption of one joule of radiation energy per kilogram of matter.
Sterilization refers to any process that removes, kills, or deactivates all forms of life and other biological agents such as prions present in or on a specific surface, object, or fluid. Sterilization can be achieved through various means, including heat, chemicals, irradiation, high pressure, and filtration. Sterilization is distinct from disinfection, sanitization, and pasteurization, in that those methods reduce rather than eliminate all forms of life and biological agents present. After sterilization, an object is referred to as being sterile or aseptic.
Radioactive contamination, also called radiological pollution, is the deposition of, or presence of radioactive substances on surfaces or within solids, liquids, or gases, where their presence is unintended or undesirable.
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).
Radioresistance is the level of ionizing radiation that organisms are able to withstand.
The Radura is the international symbol indicating a food product has been irradiated. The Radura is usually green and resembles a plant in circle. The top half of the circle is dashed. Graphical details and colours vary between countries.
Iodine-131 is an important radioisotope of iodine discovered by Glenn Seaborg and John Livingood in 1938 at the University of California, Berkeley. It has a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days. It is associated with nuclear energy, medical diagnostic and treatment procedures, and natural gas production. It also plays a major role as a radioactive isotope present in nuclear fission products, and was a significant contributor to the health hazards from open-air atomic bomb testing in the 1950s, and from the Chernobyl disaster, as well as being a large fraction of the contamination hazard in the first weeks in the Fukushima nuclear crisis. This is because 131I is a major fission product of uranium and plutonium, comprising nearly 3% of the total products of fission. See fission product yield for a comparison with other radioactive fission products. 131I is also a major fission product of uranium-233, produced from thorium.
Iodine-125 (125I) is a radioisotope of iodine which has uses in biological assays, nuclear medicine imaging and in radiation therapy as brachytherapy to treat a number of conditions, including prostate cancer, uveal melanomas, and brain tumors. It is the second longest-lived radioisotope of iodine, after iodine-129.
Radicidation is a specific case of food irradiation where the dose of ionizing radiation applied to the food is sufficient to reduce the number of viable specific non-spore-forming pathogenic bacteria to such a level that none are detectable when the treated food is examined by any recognized method. The required dose is in the range of 2 – 8 kGy. The term may also be applied to the destruction of parasites such as tapeworm and trichina in meat, in which case the required dose is in the range of 0.1 – 1 kGy. When the process is used specifically for destroying enteropathogenic and enterotoxinogenic organisms belonging to the genus Salmonella, it is referred to as Salmonella radicidation.
Electron-beam processing or electron irradiation (EBI) is a process that involves using electrons, usually of high energy, to treat an object for a variety of purposes. This may take place under elevated temperatures and nitrogen atmosphere. Possible uses for electron irradiation include sterilization, alteration of gemstone colors, and cross-linking of polymers.
The committed dose in radiological protection is a measure of the stochastic health risk due to an intake of radioactive material into the human body. Stochastic in this context is defined as the probability of cancer induction and genetic damage, due to low levels of radiation. The SI unit of measure is the sievert.
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, 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.
Phytosanitary irradiation is a treatment that uses ionizing radiation on commodities, such as fruits and vegetables to inactivate pests, such as insects. This method is used for international food trade as a means to prevent spread of non-native organisms. It is used as an alternative to conventional techniques, which includes heat treatment, cold treatment, pesticide sprays, high pressure treatment, cleaning, waxing or chemical fumigation. It is often used on spices, grains, and non-food items. It inhibits the species reproduction cycle by destroying nuclear material primarily, whereas other methods are measured by species mortality. Each country has different effective approved dosages, although most follow guidelines established by the IPPC which has issued guidelines referred to as the International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures (ISPM). The most commonly used dose is 400 Gy based on USDA-APHIS guidelines.
Miriam Mason Higgins Thomas was an American chemist, based in the United States Army Research and Development Command at Natick, Massachusetts.
References
- ↑ J.F. Diehl, Safety of Irradiated Foods, Marcel Dekker, 1995, p. 99 ff. some interpretation of the meaning of this new terminology is available
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