Food Irradiation: Radiation-Based Sterilization, Insecticidal, and Inhibition of Sprouting Technologies for Foods and Agricultural Produce

Food irradiation is a technology to treat foods with ionizing radiation such as gamma rays and electron beams to improve the safety and extends the shelf life of foods by reducing or eliminating microorganisms and insects and by prevention of sprouting. The food irradiated with ionizing radiation is named as “irradiated food.” Ionizing radiation can treat packaged foods and fresh and/or frozen products and effectively and uniformly treat all portions of foods. Many international organizations have approved the safety and usefulness of food irradiation. Food irradiation is an environmentally friendly technology without usage of chemicals and contributes to the solution of food security and food sanitary problems especially reducing postharvest losses of foods and controlling foodborne illness, as an alternative to chemical fumigation with ethylene oxide and methyl bromide gasses. Japan has a 50-year history of food irradiation research. It was legally authorized to irradiate potatoes for preventing germination in 1972, and since 1974 irradiated potatoes have been shipped from the Shihorocho Agricultural Cooperative Association in Hokkaido. Recently, commercial food irradiation has increased significantly in Asia; however, Japan is now far behind other countries, and it is called a “food irradiation underdeveloped country.” To break through the current backward situation, this chapter introduces the latest and objective fact related to food irradiation based on scientific data.