Application of Gamma Radiation in Food, Medical Products and Agriculture

Abstract

Sterilization of health care products, reduction of total microbial load in feed and food samples, extension of shelf-life of fresh
vegetables and genetic improvement of some plants are some of applications in the GU-3 gamma irradiation facility. The dosimetric
system used is treated in this paper because dose and its uniformity are very important parameters of the radiation processing. They are
related with chemical, biological and other physical changes in the irradiated product. To provide good dose uniformity (determined as
the ratio of maximal dose to minimal dose) it is applied the radiation technique based on the rotation of the vessel with the material inside
it. The dose uniformity was about 105 %. With regard to reducing total microbial load in food and feed samples it was seen that this
quantity was reduced from )/g for control, up to >10/g for the irradiated samples. Over analytical control
of the irradiated health care products was confirmed their sterility. Irradiated fresh vegetables (tomato and strawberry) had a longer shelflife
than control. We used mutation breeding in pepper through radiation to improve crops quality and in M1 generation photosynthetic
pigments were higher in mutant materials than control.