Food Preservation: The Installation
To fulfill the assumptions of human and environmental safety, the site of irradiation is a concrete shielded room, with walls thick enough to stop the energy emitted by the source, so that workers and the general public are affected by it. Access to the area of irradiation is also shielded with safety systems.
The products to be irradiated is moved through the use of mechanical displacement. These are responsible for transporting goods from the warehouse Fresh to irradiation room, where they are exposed to ionizing energy, and from this sector are brought to the deposit of irradiated products. Argentina produces Co-60 sources for industrial use, appropriate to meet the needs outlined above.
Regarding the fulfillment of the processes of food irradiation, the dose is actually known through physical controls and/or chemicals. The dosimeters are distributed in bundles to be irradiated and then calculated exposure time are collected and read to verify the dose received by the products.
Since the activity of radionuclides decreases with time, they must be replenished through the incorporation of new sources. The Co-60, which is the most widely used industrially emitter radioactive decay in five years. Consequently, to maintain constant the activity should be incorporated annually 12.5% ??of the initial charge.
The issue of safety of irradiated foods has been studied in the world since the ’30s, but more extensive work is performed in the ’70s by a joint FAO American Foods Organition, O.I.E.A. International Atomic Energy Agency, and WHO World Health Organization.
Were issued in 1980 in a document that says that any food can be irradiated with doses up to 10 kGy (Gy: Gray: energy absorption of one joule per kg of mass), without causing significant nutritional losses, or toxic effects, mutagenic or carcinogenic for the consumer. Nor is generated radioactivity in food because they are used sources whose energies are lower than those needed for this: cobalt (Co-60), cesium 137 (Ca-137), accelerated electrons of energy greater than 10 MeV (Mega electron volt) , and x-rays of energy greater than 5 MeV. The food is not contaminated with either radioactive material from sources as they are sealed and also at any time in contact with them. Similar studies are underway to make the same claims with higher radiation doses (up to 70 kGy). Argentine Food Code, Article 174, legislation on broad technological aspects, and in other articles permits the irradiation of potatoes, onions and garlic for inhibiting outbreak of strawberry to prolong life, asparagus and mushroom to delay aging , and spices, dehydrated fruits and vegetables, for health purposes.
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