COM 0212.218 1996-1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

FROM: POLS FFx NO.: 18089747670 05-05-97 03:46P p.g4 higher-quality fruit. Pathogens in raw poultry or meat can be reduced by 99.9% by a low "pasteurization" dose of radiation (13). Use of still lower doses can disinfest grain and produce and can retard natural senescence of fruit and vegetables. This all results in the reduced use or elimination of chemical treatments- Irradiated foods closely resemble foods in their fresh state (8,12). Effect of Irradiation on Nutritive Value of Food Irradiation has been compared with pasteurization because it destroys pathogenic bacteria. Because irradiation does not substantially raise the temperature of the food being processed, nutrient losses are small and are often substantially less than nutrient losses associated with other methods of preservation, such as canning, drying, and heat pasteurization and sterilization (7,8,10,1 l The relative sensitivity of different vitamins to irradiation depends on the fond source, and the combination of irradiation and cooking is not considered to produce losses of notable concern (8). Proteins, fats, and carbohydrate are not notably altered by irradiation (7,8,12)- In genera], those nutrients most sensitive to heat treatment, such as the B vitamins and ascorbic acid, are those most sensitive 20 irradiation. Diehl (8) and Thorne (12) compared nutrient losses from irradiation with those associated with other traditional methods of preparation. Vitamin losses from pure solutions are larger than losses when the vitamin is in a food (8)- Nutrient losses can be further minimized by irradiating food in an oxygen-free environment or in a frozen state (8,12). Fox and coworkers (18) derived a formula to calculate predicted losses in cooked pork and chicken on the basis of data on quantities of these items from the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the US diet and irradiation doses allowed by FDA. Predicted losses for thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin in pork and thiamin in chicken ranged from 0,01% to 1.5%. Earlier reports regarding losses of ascorbic acid in potatoes, due to a shift to dehydroascorbic acid, are no longer considered valid as they failed to consider that dehydroascorbic acid also has vitamin activity (8) In a study of the ascorbic acid content of oranges, Nagai and Moy (I 9) found no significant differences between irradiated and control frui[ at dose levels up to 1.0 kGy and throughout a 6-week storage period. Sensory qualities such as appearance and flavor have been evaluated in the laboratory (8,17,19,20) and in market studies with consumers (15,20) Consumers consistently rate irradiated fruit as equal or better than nonirradiated fruits in appearance, freshness, and taste (15,20,21). Food Safety Irradiation does cause changes in food, all of which have been found to be benign. More than 40 years of multispecies, multigenerational animal studies have shown no toxic effects from eating irradiated foods (22). Additionally, human volunteers consuming up to 100°ro of their diets as irradiated food have shown no ill effect (8). Irradiation produces so little chemical change in food that it is difficult to design a test to determine whether a food has been irradiated (23)_ A small number of new compounds are formed when food is irradiated, just as new compounds are formed when food is exposed to heat. Early research described these new compounds as "unique radiolytic products" because they were identified after food was irradiated (8)- Subsequent im~estigations have determined that free radicals and other 3 0(8 Si5i97 11:12 AM