Performance evaluation of the European Committee Standardization Method EN1785 for the detection of irradiated processed food

2-dodecylcyclobutanone (DCB) and 2-tetradecylcyclobutanone (TCB) are specific radiolytic products in irradiated lipid-containing food and can be used to detect irradiated foods. We previously reported a performance evaluation test in a single laboratory for qualitative detection methods using DCB and TCB as markers for irradiated foods. EN1785, a European Committee Standardization Method, has been widely used for qualitative detection of DCB and TCB in irradiated foods. Here, we evaluated the applicability of EN1785 to camembert cheese, liquid whole egg, sausage and eel grilled without seasoning by using our evaluation test. In this test, extracted lipids from the food were used as negative samples. The lipids spiked with DCB and TCB were used as positive samples. For each food type, 4 negative and 16 positive samples were analyzed by EN1785. All of the negative samples were judged negative and all of the positive samples were judged positive. Thus, EN1785 should be able to detect irradiation in the tested food. Additionally, to confirm the ability of the validated method to detect irradiated food, the same type of food examined above, both unirradiated and irradiated at doses of 0.5-4 kGy, were analyzed by the method. All of the unirradiated samples were judged negative and all of the irradiated samples were judged positive. (author)