Food irradiation: Current problems and future potential

Food irradiation is one of a set of processing technologies that can be used to increase the microbiological safety and shelf-life of a wide range of foods. Ionizing radiation is used to generate highly active chemical species within the food, which react with DNA. Under normal usage conditions, the food receives a pasteurizing treatment that gives a valuable reduction in common food-spoilage organisms and food pathogens. This review describes how the process is used in practice, including the benefits and limitations. The nature of changes to food components are outlined, together with the development of detection methods practical that utilize these changes. The legislative position of food irradiation is outlined, with the specific example of the introduction of the technology within the UK. The reasons for the slow uptake in the use of the technology are discussed, and the problem of consumer acceptance is addressed.     

Food protein sources.

Work on food, planned by the U.M. (Use and Management) Section of the U.K. committe, was limited to sources of protein because we agreed that more problems calling for research were likely to arise in getting adequate supplies of protein than of other types of food. Deer meat can be produced on land too rough and exposed for sheep; parts of the work on their metabolism and food requirements necessitated building a mobile laboratory. The manner in which the nutritive value of maize is affected by changes in the ratios in which the component proteins are present, stimulated similar studies on barley and groundnut. There is good quality protein in coconuts and leaves but its use in human food is restricted by the presence of fibre. Methods for separating protein from fibre and other deleterious components were improved. In cooperation with scientists in India and Nigeria, the potential yield of protein-deficient foods. e.g. cassava, were 'ennobled' by growing micro-organisms on them with the addition of a cheap source of nitrogen.     

Food intake and growth of burro foals after 250 roentgens of cobalt-60 whole-body gamma irradiation

Possible late effects of sublethal levels of whole-body gamma irradiation on growth of burro foals were studied. Two trials included 31 nonirradiated foals and 32 foals that were exposed to 250 R of 60Co gamma radiation during their fourth month of life. The foals were weaned 90 days postirradiation and allotted into treatment groups based on radiation treatment, weight, sex, and size. Each group was then randomly selected to be fed a ration containing either 9 %, 14 %, or 18 % crude protein in the first trial and either 9 % or 18 % in the second trial. The length of these trials was 364 days. Criteria used to evaluate the treatments included feed consumption, body weight gains, feed efficiency, increase in height, and increase in heart girth. Least-squares analysis of these data indicated that radiation had no significant effect on any of the traits tested. There was a consistent though nonsignificant trend for irradiated foals to be less efficient in feed utilization than their nonirradiated counterparts.     

Cerebrovascular response after interstitial irradiation.

To characterize the role of the cerebrovascular response in the development of brain injury after focal irradiation, 125I sources were implanted in frontal white matter of the brain of normal dogs; dose was 20 Gy, 7.5 mm from the source. Cerebral blood flow, vascular volume and mean transit time of blood were quantified in irradiated tissues relative to tissues in the contralateral hemisphere and analyzed with respect to previously determined volumetric measurements of damage and the blood-to-brain transfer constant. Blood flow and vascular volume within the radiation-induced focal lesion were maximally reduced 3 weeks after implant, when necrosis volume was maximal. By 6 weeks, vascular volume and mean transit time were increased, suggesting a strong neovascular response. In tissues surrounding the lesion, blood flow and vascular volume were reduced 1-4 weeks after irradiation and approached normal at 6 weeks; average mean transit time was not altered significantly. Alterations in blood flow and mean transit time were significantly related to edema volume and transfer constant, but alterations in vascular volume were not, suggesting that edema-induced vascular compression was not responsible for changes in blood flow. Reductions of radiation-induced permeability of the blood-brain barrier and/or edema might limit radiation-induced changes in blood flow and the extent of tissue injury.     

Theoretical analysis of mixed irradiation.

We revised the models for mixed irradiation by Zaider and Rossi and by Suzuki, substituting second-order repair function for a first-order one in reduction and interaction factors of the models. The reduction factor, which reduces the contribution of the square of a dose to cell killing in the models, and the interaction factor, which also reduces the contribution of the interaction of two or more doses of different types of radiation, were formulated by using the second-order repair function. These newly modified models for mixed irradiation can express or predict cell survival more accurately than the older ones, especially when irradiation is prolonged at low dose rates.