National center of radiobiology and radiation protection

 

·       Safety,  radiation processing, food,  microbiological indicators

 

Sometime, the fresh looking and otherwise perfectly safe food may be harmful to certain categories of people, who’s immune system has been tempered by disease or medical treatment.  Preservation of food and achievement of its ‘cleanness” is a prerequisite for food safety in case of Immune-compromised Patients.

The aim of the presented work is to prove that food irradiation is suitable for reduction of microbial contamination and in the same time does not change quality of the processed foods. The degree of contamination of foods was tested by microbiological indicators before and after the treatment.

The foods were irradiated at a 60-Co source. Radiation processing of food with dose levels of 5 kGy for dry foodstuffs and 2.5 kGy for freshly prepared ready to eat meals provides highly efficient and relatively low cost technology with a good cost-benefit ratio and Relatively low doses, below 5kGy, decontaminated the foods from microorganisms.

Results showed that after exposure of food to gamma irradiation the total number of microorganisms decreased significantly, i.e. the microbial content is reduced to safe levels. The results of organoleptic evaluation showed that in most cases the dose of irradiation does not adversely affect the appearance, taste and aroma of tested foods.

The appearance, taste and other important qualities of foods do not change after irradiation with low dose gamma-rays.  The tested foods are safe and delicious as the non-irradiated samples having the additional benefit of being “clean”. There is a potential for application of food irradiation in development of clean diets.