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Irradiation As A Means Of Preservation In The Food Industry
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1.2 FOOD IRRADIATION DEVELOPMENTS
There is a widening gap in the less
developed countries (LDC’s) of Africa, Asia and Latin America between
the growth rates of population and food production. Yet, in LDC’s over a
quarter of the harvested food is lost due to wastage and spoilage. In
Nigeria, very high losses of foods, especially highly perishable foods
such as fish, fruits, vegetable and some dietary staples such as yam,
maize, millet and sorghum occur in the time lag between harvest and
consumption and during storage. There is, therefore, the need for
greater utilization of the available appropriate technologies of food
preservation in these countries (Aworh, 1986).
In the last three
decades a new technology, food irradiation, has been developed which has
the potential of reducing food losses in LDC’s (Aworh, 1986).
Research
on Food irradiation dates back to the turn of the 20th century. The
first US and British patents were issued for use of ionizing radiation
to kill bacteria in foods in 1905. Food irradiation gained significant
momentum in 1947 when researchers found that meat and other foods could
be sterilized by high energy and the process was seen to have potential
to preserve food for military troops in the field. To establish the
safety and effectiveness of the irradiation process, the U.S. Army began
a series of experiments with fruits, vegetables, dairy products, fish
and meat in the early 1950’s. (www.ccr.uc davis.edu).
In 1958,
Congress gave the FDA authority over the food irradiation process under
the 1958 Food Additive Amendment to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The
FDA has approved food irradiation process for wheat, potatoes, pork,
spices, poultry, fruits, vegetables and red meat (www.ccr.uc davis.edu).
Food
irradiation was recognised by the United Nations which established the
Joint Expert Committee on Food Irradiation. Their first meeting was in
1964. The committee concluded in 1980 that “irradiation of foods up to
the dose of 10kGy introduces no special nutritional or microbiological
problemsâ€. (www.ccr.uc davis.edu).
In 1999, the World Health
Organisation determined the dose limitation at very high dose is
palatability etc. Irradiation should be considered parallel to cooking
in all aspects of safety. (www.ccr.uc davis.edu).
Tremendous progress
has been made, in the past few decades, in the design and construction
of safe radiation facilities and chances of radiation accidents are now
very remote provided that personnel have been properly trained in the
operation of radiation facilities (Aworh, 1986).
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