Summary
With increasing acceptance and application of food irradiation, there is an increasing need to disseminate information about irradiated food to the consumers in an objective and clear manner. All governments which have authorized the use of this process have introduced regulations which require that irradiated food be properly labelled to enable consumers to exercise their own choice. International standards which contain provisions on labelling of prepackaged, irradiated food, were adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 1984.
One of the key issues which came to the forefront on commercialization of irradiated food is whether consumers would be prepared to accept foods which are labelled to indicate the treatment. To validate the correctness of labelling, analytical techniques were needed which would distinguish between irradiated and non-irradiated food products. Ideally, such techniques should be simple, accurate, easy to perform, quick and not expensive. It was recognized that such detection methods would augment standard regulatory procedures and would thereby help assure consumers that processors and distributors are adhering to government control procedures. This sentiment was clearly expressed in the International Document adopted by the FAO/IAEA/ITC/WHO International Conference on Acceptance, Control of and Trade in Irradiated Food, Geneva, Switzerland, 1988.
The Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture took the initiative to organize an international Coordinated Research Project on "Analytical Detection Methods for Irradiation Treatment of Food - ADMIT" between 1989 and 1994. This was joined by the European Commission's Bureau of Chemical References (BCR) in co-ordinating a similar research programme within the EU countries. The outcome of these two programmes as well as those from elsewhere were reported at an international symposium held in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 20-24 June 1994.
Extensive research in the past several years especially those carried out under the ADMIT and BCR programmes have resulted in a range of methods using a wide variety of chemical, physical and biological techniques which are reliable and sensitive for detecting a number of irradiated food. It should be stated from the outset that there is no single technique which can be used for detecting all types of irradiated foods. This book contains details of a number of detection methods which can be used for different types of irradiated food. Some methods, such as electron spin resonance spectroscopy, will not only permit detection of primary irradiated products but will also allow detection of these irradiated products in secondary and tertiary food (e.g. the detection of irradiated mechanically recovered chicken meat in a cooked hamburger).
This book also contains results of intercomparison trials of several detection methods. These trials have had a number of important consequences. First, they have allowed the validity of a method to be established and secondly, permit the transfer of the analytical methodology to other laboratories on a worldwide basis. Finally, the proof that methods do work has permitted some of them to be adopted as official methods in a number of countries and also by the European Union.