Just been 'discussing' this with one of my mum's friends, and got very irritated when she reacted, rather strongly, with "oh, but it takes all the nutritional value, and uhm, proteins out of it! It kills all the goodness. Why would you want to?" I couldn't muster a response, because I don't know anything about the specifics of what food irradiation kills, what it reduces, etc. What I did know was that this position was unfounded and probably typical "science screwing with the natural order, omg!" tabloid-reading hype. So what's the score with food irradiation? What are the drawbacks?
As far as I know there are no immediate nutritional drawbacks. Irradiation simply kills microorganisms in the food. It won't affect nutritional value and it doesn't matter what happens to the proteins because they all get broken down anyway. Put simply, there is no reason to not eat irradiated food.
It's my understanding that gamma irradiation of food only kills the harmful stuff. We have irradiated milk here in the US, you can store it in the pantry until opened and actually is better than "normal" milk because it doesn't get pasturized. It has a fuller richer taste. Course it is still a bit expensive.
Afaik, its mainly done on ready meals (tv dinners) so you dont open up a lovely plastic dish of botulism. And as nothing is alive in the food it shouldn't alter the proteins.
I thought it was mainly done on Fresh fruit and veg now, so that when it's imported from further away it lasts longer. The example we were given in Physics (IIRC) was Strawberries at least. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_irradiation#Irradiated_foods_in_the_market_place
HULK WANT IRRADIATED FOOD!!!! Food irradiation is the process of exposing food to ionizing radiation in order to destroy microorganisms, bacteria, viruses, or insects that might be present in the food. Further applications include sprout inhibition, delay of ripening, increase of juice yield, and improvement of re-hydration. Irradiation is a more general term of deliberate exposure of materials to radiation to achieve a technical goal (in this context 'ionizing radiation' is implied). As such it is also used on non-food items, such as medical hardware, plastics, tubes for gas-pipelines, hoses for floor-heating, shrink-foils for food packaging, automobile parts, wires and cables (isolation), tires, and even gemstones. Compared to the amount of food irradiated, the volume of those every-day applications is huge but not noticed by the consumer. The genuine effect of processing food by ionizing radiation relates to damages to the DNA, the basic genetic information for life. Microorganisms can no longer proliferate and continue their malignant or pathogen activities. Spoilage causing micro-organisms cannot continue their activities. Insects do not survive or become incapable of proliferation. Plants cannot continue the natural ripening or aging process. All these effects are beneficial to the consumer and the food industry, likewise. It should be noted that the amount of energy imparted for effective food irradiation is low compared to cooking the same; even at a typical dose of 10 kGy most food, which is (with regard to warming) physically equivalent to water, would warm by only about 2.5 °C. The speciality of processing food by ionizing radiation is the fact, that the energy density per atomic transition is very high, it can cleave molecules and induce ionization (hence the name) which cannot be achieved by mere heating. This is the reason for new beneficial effects, however at the same time, for new concerns. The treatment of solid food by ionizing radiation can provide an effect similar to heat pasteurization of liquids, such as milk. However, the use of the term, cold pasteurization, to describe irradiated foods is controversial, because pasteurization and irradiation are fundamentally different processes, although the intended end results can in some cases be similar. Food irradiation is currently permitted by over 40 countries and volumes are estimated to exceed 500 000 metric tons annually world wide. booyah nexxo, i got there first.
Thanks for the replies. So it doesn't kill off the natural 'life' or 'vigour' of food, or destroy its 'natural flavour' or freshness? That seemed to be the gist, and I couldn't understand why. Re: slackening standards, I can see how that would happen; the solution of course is improved (or better enforced) health measures in factories & workplaces. I've worked in restaurants, so I know how lax measures can get on THAT end. God knows what goes on on factory lines.
No it would not affect flavour unless the radiation ionised some food molecules or started some free radical chain reaction or something equally odd.
