Study on identification of irradiated food containing cellulose by ESR

The fast development and application of food irradiation technology signify the necessity and urgency to research on effective detection method for irradiated food. In this paper, we report a preliminary study in this area with dried chili powder, peanuts and strawberry seeds. The food samples were irradiated to 0.5, 1.0, 3.0, 5.0 and 10.0 kGy by 60Co gamma rays. The relation between ESR intensity and irradiation dose, and correlation R2, were studied. The results showed that the ESR signal intensity is positively related with the dose. ESR intensity of the strawberry increased the slowest with the dose, and the chili powder had the most accurate calculation. Accurate dose-effect curves, however, require repeating tests and further studies are needed to verify the ESR results. (authors)