Chapter 10: Food Irradiation as Sanitary Treatment

The control of microbial contamination on food through the application of ionizing radiation continues to be one of the most challenging and important applications of irradiation processing. The availability of published data related to dose–response relationships for various kinds of organisms, including viruses, bacteria, fungal spores, and yeasts, under varying food matrices and irradiation conditions can offer guidance to determine the effectiveness of a radiation sanitary treatment process. The radiation sensitivity of microorganisms is related to their inherent diversity with respect to the chemical and physical structure and environmental conditions, as well their capacity to recover from radiation injuries. The essential features of radiation microbiology for food sanitary treatment with irradiation technologies are described in this chapter.