A brief review on identification of irradiated foods using physical methods - thermoluminescence and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy

Food irradiation is now legally accepted in majority of the countries. The need for reliable and routine tests to determine whether or not food has been irradiated has arisen as a result of the progress made in commercialization of the food irradiation technology and increased international trade in irradiated foods. The availability of reliable identification methods would be of assistance in establishing a system of legislative control, and to help achieve acceptance of irradiated food by consumers. Identification of irradiated food is an extremely challenging task as negligible changes in irradiated food matrix are required to be detected. No single method has so far been established to deal with all types of foods. The present review discusses the efforts made in BARC to explore the use of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and thermo luminescence (TL) measurements to identify several irradiated foods and allied products. (author)