Detection of Irradiated Food and Evaluation of the Given Dose by Electron Spin Resonance, Thermoluminescence, and Gas Chromatographic/Mass Spectrometric Analysis

Abstract

The treatment of food with ionizing radiation, at doses lower than 10 kGy, is a preservation technology, which can be used to reduce food spoilage due to microorganisms and to decrease insect infestation, enhancing, in the same time, the hygienic quality, extending the shelf life of food itself. In order to increase the general consumer acceptance and accordingly to facilitate the commercialization and trade of irradiated food, the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) validated reliable analytical techniques to identify irradiated foodstuffs for legal control purposes, distinguished in Chemical, Physical, and Microbiological ones, depending on the characteristics of marker induced by radiation in food. The estimation of the original dose is as much important as the quality control to evaluate whether or not the food was irradiated within the upper permitted dose limit of 10 kGy. The proposed chapter briefly describes the following methods validated by CEN "EN 1786:1996, EN 1787:2000" (Detection of irradiated food containing respectively bone and cellulose by ESR Spectroscopy), "EN 1788:2001" (Thermoluminescence detection of irradiated food from which silicate minerals can be isolated) and "EN 1785:2003" (Detection of irradiated food containing fat. Gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric analysis of 2-alkylcyclobutanones). Original methods set up to evaluate the given dose in irradiated food, using the ESR Spectroscopy, TL technique and gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric analysis, are deeply described.