Irradiation's potential for preserving food

The first experimental studies on the use of ionizing radiation for the preservation of foods were published over thirty years ago (1, 2) . After a period of high expectations and perhaps exaggerated optimism a series of disappointments occurred in the late '60s .The first company specifically created to operate a food irradiation plant, Newfield Products Inc, ran into financial difficulties and had to close its potato irradiation facility in 1966. The irradiator, designed to process 15,000t of potatoes per month for inhibition of sprouting, was in operation during one season only. In 1968 the US Food an Drug Administration refused approval for radiation-sterilisation of ham and withdrew the approval it had granted in 1963 for irradiated bacon. An International Project on the Irradiation of Fruit and Fruit juices, created in 1965 at Seibersdorf, Austria, with the collaboration or 9 countries, ended with general disappointment after three years. The first commercial grain irradiator, built in the Turkish harbour town of Iskenderun by the International Atomic Energy Agency with funds from the United Nations Development Program, never received the necessary operating licence from the Turkish Government and had to be dismantled in 1968. The US Atomic Energy Commission terminated its financial support to all research programmes on food irradiation in 1970. For a number of years, little chance seemed to remain that the new process would ever be practically used. However, research and development work was continued in a number of laboratories all over the world, and it appears that the temporary setbacks now have been overcome. Growing quantities of irradiated foods are being marketed in several countries and indications are that irradiated foods will eventually be as generally accepted as are frozen, dried or heatsterilised foods