Identifying irradiated flours by photo-stimulated luminescence technique

Photo-stimulated luminescence (PSL) technique was used in this study to detect gamma irradiation treatment of five types of flours (corn, rice, tapioca, wheat and glutinous rice) at four different doses 0, 0.2, .05 and 1kGy. The signal level was compared with two threshold values (700 and 5000). With the exception of glutinous rice, all irradiated samples produced a strong signal above the upper threshold (5000 counts/60s). All control samples produced negative result with the signals below the lower threshold (700 counts/60s) suggesting that the samples have not been irradiated. Irradiated glutinous rice samples produced intermediate signals (700 - 5000 counts/60s) which were subsequently confirmed using calibrated PSL. The PSL signals remained stable after 90 days of storage. The findings of this study will be useful to facilitate control of food irradiation application in Malaysia.