Since 1984, when the Ministry of Health announced the health service standards for six kinds of irradiated food such as peanuts, greentest eco 6 potatoes and rice, Chinese enterprises began to allow students to use irradiated food. However, for consumers who need to pay more attention to the safety management of irradiated food, the reporter interviewed relevant experts in view of the doubts about why the food that Chinese consumers are most concerned about is irradiated, whether there is residual radioactivity after irradiation, whether there are toxic side effects, and whether other nutritional education values can be seriously damaged.

Why is food irradiated

Statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations show that 1.8 million people in the global economy die every year from eating contaminated or virus-carrying food. "Food irradiation technology, radioactive detection that is, we use cobalt-60, cesium-137 and other radioactive sources produced gamma rays, or through the electron accelerator can produce high-energy electron beams, food and some development of agricultural and sideline product information analysis processing, processing technology." Since there is no ionizing radiation in food enterprises will continue to affect the chemical and biological effects of radiation environment, therefore, this science and technology can inhibit germination, delay maturity, kill pests in food and microorganisms in food, so as to achieve a kind of improvement to improve the quality of food safety, prevent food spoilage, and extend the purpose of preservation time." Ha Yiming, chief researcher at the Irradiated Food Machinery Processing and Storage Lab at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural and Social Sciences with Chinese Characteristics, explained.

Is there any residual radiation in irradiated food?

Another benefit of food irradiation technology is: "Since no chemical substances are added, the food is not contaminated, there is no chemical residue, no toxic substances will be produced, and there is almost no damage to the nutrients contained in the food. A large number of animal experiments and human food tests have also proved that irradiated food has no carcinogenic and teratogenic effects. radiation detectors for sale Therefore, according to the requirements of international organizations and national standards, irradiated food is safe and edible." "In addition, irradiation technology can also save energy and reduce environmental pollution, and is a very promising method of food preservation sterilization," he said.

Since the public has a comprehensive understanding of irradiated food, irradiated food will not only be labeled as irradiated food, but also sell well. Although China is currently one of the best countries in the application of this technology, due to the lack of public awareness of irradiated food, businesses still dare not stick irradiated food labels on the food packaging unified provisions of the Ministry of Health, so it is difficult for consumers to see food with irradiation labels in the market.

Strengthen market supervision of irradiated food

In China, "the most important problem to be solved is to allow consumers to understand 'irradiation technology' scientifically and eliminate their concerns." At the same time, enterprises should also implement product labeling from the level of laws and regulations, which not only helps promote the development of modern food processing technology, but also must be clearly stipulated."

At present, the relevant departments of the state are managing the non-labeling behavior of the merchants, but this is only one aspect of the supervision of the irradiated food market. In order to ensure national food safety and public health, more than 50 countries in the world have approved the irradiation treatment of more than 240 kinds of food and formulated relevant laws and regulations. "In international trade of agricultural products, importing countries generally require irradiated foods to be clearly informed and labeled. Therefore, domestic businesses will only submit export products for inspection, and other products will not be submitted for inspection. Therefore, the state must establish a mandatory mechanism to strengthen the identification and inspection of food irradiation treatment, so that food irradiation can develop in a healthy and orderly way.