Is irradiation the same thing as cooking in a microwave oven?
No. Irradiation involves the treatment of food with ionizing radiation to achieve desired effects, e.g., killing pathogens, extending shelf-life, controlling sprouting, replacing chemical fumigation, etc., without significantly increasing the temperature of food. Thus it is a non-thermal process. In contrast, microwave ovens expose foods to a non-ionizing radiation that generates heat by increasing the molecular motion of the water molecules in moist foods, thus cooking them.
