World Health Organization : Technical Report Series, No. 659: Wholesomeness of Irradiated Food

By H. Blumenthal

Book Id: WPLBN0000172088
Format Type: PDF eBook
File Size: 1.3 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	World Health Organization : Technical Report Series, No. 659: Wholesomeness of Irradiated Food
Author:	H. Blumenthal
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Health., Public health, Wellness programs
Collections:	Medical Library Collection, World Health Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	World Health Organization


Citation APA MLA Chicago Blumenthal, H. (n.d.). World Health Organization : Technical Report Series, No. 659. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.cc/

Description
Medical Reference Publication

Excerpt
1. INTRODUCTION The world's food requirements continue to grow, but in an environment of scarce resources and of limitations on methods of food production. In addition, the problems of food storage and processing make it necessary to search for effective alternative methods of food preservation, particularly where existing methods are costly because of the energy requirements and may be difficult to provide in some areas. Accordingly, it is reasonable to consider the use of ionizing radiation for food storage and preservation as one alternative, provided that it hoes not adversely affect the wholesomeness of food. The need'to consider the wholesomeness of food processed by irradiation was emphasized at an international level at a meeting sponsored by FAO, IAEA and WHO in Brussels in 1961 (1). The studies required to ascertain the wholesomeness of irradiated food were discussed by a Joint FAO/IAEA/WHO Expert Committee on Irradiated Food in Rome in 1964 (2). Taking as a premise that the irradiation of food resulted in the production of radiolytic products in the food, the Committee adopted the view that these products represented additions to the food. It therefore concluded that the establishment of the safety of irradiated foods should follow procedures similar to those generally used for evaluating the safety of food additives and should be pursued on a food-by-food basis.

Table of Contents
CONTENTS Page 1 . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2 . General considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.1 Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.2 Reasons for the use of food irradiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3 . Technical aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3.1 Radiation sources .............................................. 9 3.2 Absorbed dose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3.3 Processing conditions for irradiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.4 Packaging of irradiated food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.5 Repeated irradiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.6 Technological efficacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.7 Requirements of quality assurance and labelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4 . Aspects of radiation chemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4.1 Chemical analysis and wholesomeness evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 4.2 Recent studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 4.3 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 5 . Nutritional aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 6 . Microbiological aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 6.1 Variations in radiation resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 6.2 Radiation-induced genetic variations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 6.3 Microbiological aims of food irradiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 7 . Toxicological aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 7.1 Re-evaluation of provisional acceptances and new evaluations . . . . . . . . 18 7.2 Considerations arising from a review of data on irradiated laboratory animal diets and other diets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 7.3 Toxicological evaluation of radiolytic products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 8 . Re-evaluation of fish. onion. and rice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 8.1 Teleost fish and fish products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 8.2 Onions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 8.3 Rice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 9 . New evaluations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 9.1 Cocoabeans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 9.2 Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 9.3 Mangoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 9.4 Pulses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .