Does Irradiation Make Foods Radioactive?
(From The American Dietetic Association Position: Food irradiation, and the Utah State University Extension Fact Sheet) Radioactivity in foods could only occur if the foods were contaminated with a radioactive substance, or by penetration of energy into the nuclei of the atoms that make up the food. In food irradiation, the food itself never contacts a radioactive substance, and the ionizing radiation used is not strong enough to disintegrate the nucleus of even one atom of a food molecule. 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 investigations have determined that free radicals and other compounds produced during irradiation are identical to those formed during cooking, steaming, roasting, pasteurization, freezing, and other forms of food preparation
