Irradiated food will harm health？ Misunderstanding!
Irradiation technology is a kind of food processing and preservation technology in the food field, and it is also one of the cold sterilization technologies we often talk about. But some people think that irradiated food also has hidden dangers to human body. Is this really the case? Recently, the reporter interviewed relevant experts in the food field.
What kind of technology is irradiation technology? Jiang Qixing, an associate professor at the College of Food Science of Jiangnan University and a post expert of Jiangsu Modern Agriculture (Carp) Industrial Technology System Processing and Circulation Innovation Team, said: "China’s national standard GB18524-2016" Hygienic standard for food irradiation processing "stipulates the definition of food irradiation: using the radiochemical and radiobiological effects produced by ionizing radiation in food to achieve the purpose of inhibiting germination, delaying or promoting maturity, killing insects, sterilizing, sterilizing and preserving.
What specific fields are irradiation technologies used in? Jiang Qixing introduced that China has allowed the application of irradiation technology in certain food categories. The National Standard for Food Safety, Hygienic Specification for Food Irradiation Processing, stipulates that the types of irradiated foods should be within the scope specified in GB14891, and other foods are not allowed to be irradiated.
According to the current GB14891.1-GB14891.8 standard, the types of food allowed to be treated by irradiation technology in China at present include cooked livestock and poultry meat, pollen, dried fruits and preserved fruits, spices, fresh fruits, vegetables, pork, frozen packaged livestock and poultry meat, beans, cereals and their products. Common applications, such as inhibiting the germination of garlic and potatoes, sterilizing spices, etc.
However, according to China’s national standard GB7718-2011 "General Rules for Labeling of National Food Safety Standards in prepackaged foods", the food that has been treated by ionizing radiation or ionizing energy should be labeled near the food name. "Any ingredients that have been treated by ionizing radiation or ionizing energy shall be indicated in the ingredient list." This is why some food packages are marked with the words "irradiated food" near the product name or "spices are treated by irradiation sterilization technology" in the ingredient list.
Will radiation cause harm to food and human body? "In 1980, the conclusion of the joint expert committee of FAO, IAEA and WHO showed that the overall average absorbed dose of irradiated food was less than 10kGy, so toxicological experiments were not needed, and there were no special nutritional and microbiological problems." Jiang Qixing said.
Jiang Qixing believes that China’s national standard GB14891 limits the maximum overall average absorbed dose used in various foods that are allowed to be irradiated, and the related maximum overall average absorbed dose is less than 10kGy. Therefore, as long as the food irradiated in strict accordance with the relevant national irradiation standards, there is no radiation safety problem.
Extended reading
There is no need to talk about the color change of "radiation" and objectively understand the radiation in life
Human beings have been living in the environment of natural radiation, and everyone living on the earth is exposed to cosmic rays, in addition, it is also exposed to natural radioactive substances contained in the living environment such as soil and rocks. Therefore, it is inevitable that the food people eat, the water they drink, the house they live in, the road they walk, the air they breathe and even our human bodies contain trace amounts of radioactive substances.
As early as 1950s, isotope and radiation technology has been widely used in crop breeding, radiation processing of agricultural products and food, soil and fertilizer, pest control, animal husbandry, aquatic products and agricultural environmental protection, and has become an important science and technology to transform and innovate traditional agriculture and promote agricultural modernization. China has made great achievements in the field of crop radiation breeding, and 18 varieties, including Lumian No.1, have won the National Invention Award.
In recent years, shenzhou spaceship and others carried crop seeds for space breeding, and used cosmic rays and microgravity to mutate the seeds to produce beneficial variation, so as to breed new varieties of rice, wheat, cotton, rape and vegetables with high yield, high quality and strong stress resistance. With the improvement of modern living standards, the problem of food safety is becoming more and more serious. With the help of nuclear technology, food and agricultural and sideline products can be sterilized, killed and preserved, which can not only improve the hygienic quality of food and prolong the shelf life of food, but also produce no additional radioactivity. Therefore, irradiated food is safe and reliable, and can be safely eaten. Radiation only plays a bactericidal role and has no adverse effects on human growth, development and inheritance. Irradiation processing is also a new food processing technology after heating and freezing storage technology of food in cans. In the field of environmental protection, nuclear technology has been applied to the monitoring and analysis of air pollutants, water bodies and various environmental samples. It is more efficient to purify air, wastewater and sludge by irradiation technology than by traditional treatment technology.