Luminescence detection of irradiated foods

The need for forensic tests to identify irradiated foods has been widely recognised at a time of growing international trade in such products and impending changes in UK and EEC legislation to control the process. This paper outlines the requirements for and of such tests, and discusses recent developments in luminescence approaches aimed at meeting the needs of public analysts, retailers and consumers. Detecting whether or not food has been irradiated, and if so to what dose, is one of the challenges which food irradiation poses to the scientist. (author)