Food Irradiation Helping Improve Food Safety

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Food IrradiationHelping Improve Food Safety

• The UW Food Irradiation Education Group

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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
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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
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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

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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

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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

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What Foods Can Be Irradiated?
Bacterial pathogen reduction
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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

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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

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Food Irradiation Facilities
SOURCE HOISTS
SOURCE PASS CONVEYOR
UNLOADING ELEVATOR
IRRADIATION ROOM
CONTROL CONSOLE
LOADING ELEVATOR
JS8900 UNIT CARRIER IRRADIATOR
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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

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Three different energy sourcesx-rays

• generated by directing an electron beam at a thin
  metal plate
• similar to medical x-ray sources

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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