The Techniques Of Food Irradiation

Food irradiation is a technique which is increasingly being recognised as an effective method for reducing post-harvest food losses, ensuring hygienic quality of food and facilitating wider trade of certain food items. Irradiation of food may be used to achieve a variety of desirable objectives including the following which are classified according to the average radiation dose requirement: i. Low dose application (up to about 1 kg), for inhibition of sprouting in yams, potatoes, onions, etc. insect disinfestation and delay of ripening in fruits. ii. Medium dose applications (about 1-10kgy), for reduction of micro-organisms and improvement in technological properties of food. iii. High dose application (about 10-50kgy) which is used for sterilization for commercial purposes and elimination of viruses. From the point of view of food safety the energy level of the radiation applied to food is the most important characteristics that has to be regulated in order to prevent the possible formation of induced radio activity. Fortunately, the most commonly used isotopic sources 60Co and 137Cs; and machine sources such as the electron beam generators, induced radio activity is negligible, short lived and lower than that causing radio activity. This and other scientific and technical aspects of the commercial application irradiation technology with respect Nigeria have been examined in this paper along side with those of its politics and social policy