Food irradiation

Food irradiation treats food with ionizing radiation to reduce microbes, insects, or sprouting. It can improve food safety and shelf life without making the food radioactive.

Ionizing radiation: Radiation energetic enough to remove electrons from atoms or molecules, producing ions. Food irradiation uses this high-energy radiation to damage biological targets.
Food safety: The prevention of foodborne illness through safe production, processing, storage, and preparation. Irradiation is one intervention for reducing hazards in foods.
Wilhelm Röntgen: The German physicist who discovered X-rays in 1895. His discovery made one of the radiation sources used for food treatment possible.
Pasteurization: A heat treatment that reduces harmful microorganisms in food and beverages. It achieves microbial reduction through heat rather than ionizing radiation.
Food irradiation and regulation: The laws and standards governing which foods may be irradiated and under what conditions. Permitted foods, doses, and labeling rules differ across jurisdictions.
Gamma ray: A high-energy photon emitted in nuclear transitions or other energetic processes. Gamma rays from cobalt-60 are a common source for penetrating food treatments.
Food preservation: Methods that slow spoilage and extend the usable life of food. Irradiation can delay spoilage by reducing organisms that cause it.
Lewis Stadler: An American geneticist whose research established that X-rays can induce mutations in plants. Early studies of radiation effects on living organisms informed food-treatment research.
Food sterilization: Processing that destroys viable microorganisms, including resistant spores, to achieve sterility. Many irradiation treatments reduce hazards without making food commercially sterile.
Radura: The international symbol used to identify foods treated with ionizing radiation in some labeling systems. Its use signals treatment where regulations require or permit the symbol.

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