Alpha and gamma spectrometry for the radiological characterization of animal feed

Abstract Consumption of food is the most common pathway of radionuclides into the human body. Foods of animal origin are important in the European human diet. Therefore, radiation control of animal feeds and animal products will contribute to producing food for human nutrition without, or with low risk, for human health. This paper presents data obtained by alpha and gamma spectrometric analysis for natural radionuclides and 137 Cs in animal feed. 40 K, 228 Ac, 212 Pb, 208 Tl, 214 Pb, 214 Bi and 137 Cs were determined by gamma spectrometry, 210 Po by alpha spectrometry. In all samples examined, 137 Cs activity concentration was below the detection limit (0.25 Bqkg fw − 1 ) except for one sample. The mean activity concentration was 2.26 ± 2.27 Bq kg fw − 1 for 214 Pb; 2.42 ± 2.24 Bq kg fw −1 for 214 Bi; 1.76 ± 1.17 Bq kg fw − 1 for 212 Pb; 1.88 ± 1.42 Bq kg fw − 1 for 208 Tl; 2.29 ± 1.93 Bq kg fw − 1 for 228 Ac; 3.48 ± 3.48 Bq kg fw − 1 for 210 Po, and 322.2 ± 115.6 Bq kg fw − 1 for 40 K. The principal component analysis showed differences in the radioactivity content between samples with dicalcium phosphate and without dicalcium phosphate explaining 76.5% of the total variance. A significant difference for 210 Po and 40 K activity concentration was detected between the samples with and without dicalcium phosphate.