Status of food irradiation in the world

The Potential of Food Irradiation: Benefits and Limitations

“…Food irradiation is approved for use in over 60 countries worldwide for different products, such as grains, herbs and spices, poultry, seafood, and ground beef (Kume et al 2009). Irradiation does not cause any significant loss of macronutrients.…”

“…Despite the clear benefits of the food irradiation, this method remains under estimated in the food trade. It has not been commonly accepted and approved yet (Guy, 2011;Kume et al, 2009). The main factor in the way of commercial application of the food irradiation process is consumer acceptance.…”

“…For a phytosanitary treatment to be commercially possible, the treated commodities must tolerate it. Most food products can tolerate radiation at the doses used for quarantine treatments (150 to 400 Gy) and spice disinfection is the chief use of food irradiation worldwide today with over 185600 tons irradiated each year (Heather & Hallman, 2008;Kume et al, 2009). Phytosanitary irradiation differs from other commercial treatments.…”

“…2a). In this process much of the E-beam energy is lost as heat; however the X-ray efficiency can be increased with atomic number of the target material and also with increasing E-beam energy (Kume et al, 2009). Nevertheless, X-ray facilities can process large bulk packages without the need for radioactive material.…”

“…As the technology advances, X-ray irradiation will become more extensive in future. But, it seems that, the commercial food irradiation facilities will continue to be gamma cells for a long period (Kume et al, 2009). …”