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Food Irradiation Helping Improve Food Safety

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Title: Food Irradiation Helping Improve Food Safety


1
Food IrradiationHelping Improve Food Safety
  • The UW Food Irradiation Education Group

2
Why Food Irradiation?Food Safety
  • In 1999, food-borne disease was responsible for
  • 76 million illnesses
  • 325,000 hospitalizations
  • 5000 deaths
  • 6-30 billion impact
  • Recent news stories...

According to US Center for Disease Control
3
Why Food Irradiation?Global Food Supply
  • Approximately 25 of worldwide food production is
    lost after harvesting due to insects, bacteria
    and spoilage
  • Economic losses of 5-17 billion annually in the
    US alone
  • In the news now.

According to UN Food and Agriculture
Organization
4
What is Food Irradiation?
  • New commercial technology to eliminate
    disease-causing germs
  • Comparable to heat pasteurization
  • Used for decades in NASA space missions
  • already used for sterilization of
  • medical devices, supplies and implants
  • wine corks and other food packaging materials
  • cosmetic ingredients

5
How Does Food Irradiation Help?
  • food is exposed to carefully controlled amounts
    of radiation
  • radiation damages DNA of microbes and parasites
  • disease-causing germs are reduced
  • bacteria which cause spoiling are reduced
  • sprouting is slowed or stopped

6
What are the Results of Food Irradiation?
  • When used in conjunction with proper food
    handling procedures
  • food-borne diseases are reduced or eliminated
  • shelf-life is increased
  • the nutritional value of the food is preserved
  • the food does not become radioactive
  • dangerous substances do not appear in the foods

7
What Foods Can Be Irradiated?
Bacterial pathogen reduction
8
Puchasing Irradiated Food?
  • All irradiated products must be marked with the
    Radura
  • Irradiated meats expected to be more widely
    available this summer
  • If interested, ask your local grocery
    retailer

9
Benefits of Food Irradiation
  • decreased incidence of food-borne illness
  • reduced spoilage in global food supply
  • increased level of quality assurance in
    international trade of food products

10
Food Irradiation Facilities
SOURCE HOISTS
SOURCE PASS CONVEYOR
UNLOADING ELEVATOR
IRRADIATION ROOM
CONTROL CONSOLE
LOADING ELEVATOR
JS8900 UNIT CARRIER IRRADIATOR
11
Three different energy sourceselectron beams
  • a beam of electrons is accelerated by an electron
    gun
  • similar to a TV tube, accelerating electrons
    towards the screen
  • it can be turned on or off since it uses no
    radioactive material, but
  • electron beams can only penetrate about 1 into
    material

12
Three different energy sourcesx-rays
  • generated by directing an electron beam at a thin
    metal plate
  • similar to medical x-ray sources

13
Three different energy sourcesgamma rays
  • emitted from spontaneous radioactive decay
  • pencils of naturally occurring non-radioactive
    cobalt metal (59Co)
  • neutron bombardment in reactor to produce
    radioactive cobalt (60Co)
  • turned-off by lowering Co source into storage
    pool

14
Effects of radiationHow it kills bacteria
  • radiation damages DNA of organisms
  • if the damage is not automatically repaired the
    organism will be unable to replicate itself
  • chance of DNA damage related to size of DNA
  • irradiation more effective on bacteria than
    viruses

15
Effects of radiationEffect on Food
  • most food is made up of dead cells
  • DNA damage is irrelevant
  • living cells cause sprouting and spoilage
  • DNA damage delays spoiling and prevents sprouting
  • longer shelf-life

16
Effects of radiationSide-effects
  • Nutritional effects
  • macronutrients - proteins, carbohydrates, fats -
    unaffected
  • micronutrients - vitamins - some reduction
  • comparable to other processing or storage
    techniques including pasteurization, canning, or
    even cold storage
  • No change in taste

17
Costs of Food Irradiation
  • Like any food process, irradiation will add to
    the cost of the food
  • initially 2-3/lb for produce, 3-5/lb for beef
  • expected to decrease as it becomes more common
  • Typical food irradiation plant 3-5 million
  • compare to
  • moderately sized pasteurization plant 2 million
  • small vapor-heat treatment for fruits 1 million

18
Safety of Irradiation Facilities
  • Over 30 yrs of experience
  • 100 medical sterilization plants
  • medical radiation treatment centers
  • bone marrow transplant centers
  • No public exposure to radiation
  • Independent regulators
  • gamma rays NRC
  • X-rays e-beams FDA

19
Facility Accidents and Waste
  • Severe accidents are not possible
  • electron beam and x-ray sources can be easily
    turned off
  • gamma ray sources cannot blow up
  • The facility itself cannot become radioactive
  • no radioactive waste
  • used Co-60 gamma sources can be
    recycled/regenerated

20
Food Irradiation as Part of Comprehensive Food
Safety
  • food irradiation is not a replacement for
    comprehensive food safety
  • in particular, food irradiation cannot reverse
    the spoilage process
  • irradiated foods need to be stored, handled and
    cooked in the same way as unirradiated food

21
Benefits of Food Irradiation
  • disease-causing germs are reduced or eliminated
  • the nutritional value of the food is preserved
  • decreased incidence of food-borne illness
  • reduced spoilage in global food supply
  • increased level of quality assurance in
    international trade of food products

22
Food Irradiation Means Safer Food
  • The UW Food Irradiation Education Group
  • http//uw-food-irradiation.engr.wisc.edu
  • uw-food-irradiation_at_engr.wisc.edu
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