Food for thought

Could you pick out an organic apple in a line up? Could you tell the difference between pasteurised and unpasteurised milk? Would you be able to tell if the food you were eating had been irradiated? Labelling goes a long way to keep us informed about the food we eat, but when it comes to detecting preservation methods such as irradiation, experts have to step in.

One such specialist, Dr David Sanderson, and a team at Glasgow’s Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), have been responsible for developing methods and equipment for screening foodstuffs for irradiation that have become UK and European standards.

‘Food irradiation is the use of high energy ionising radiation to extend shelf life by reducing the bacterial loads associated with natural foods,’ explains Dr Sanderson. ‘It does it without heating the food, which potentially means that the product is maintained in a more natural condition than it would be if alternatives such as pasteurisation or chemicals such as fumigants were used.’

After international and UK review committees noted that there were no methods in existence that could unambiguously say whether or not food had been irradiated, the SUERC began to explore whether luminescence tests, which the Centre has a background in, could solve the problem. The instrumentation developed is now used by a network of 120 labs worldwide.

‘Scientists and engineers have to be aware of the focus of public consciousness when applying science to fields of public interest’ Dr David Sanderson

Dr Sanderson and a team including chemist Dr Lorna Carmichael and geologist Dr Saffron Fisk were recently involved in organising a Food Standards Agency project to set up proficiency testing methods for the tests.  50 international labs participated with representatives coming to Glasgow to talk about the results. ‘We are trying to make sure that the methods we have developed are widely available  and also to encourage best practice in their use ’ says Dr Sanderson.

What’s in a name?

Irradiation is considered a safe process but despite this, the UK food industry is trying to avoid using it. This is due to the belief that the general public are unwilling to eat irradiated food. The matter has moved beyond one of public health and into the realms of consumer acceptance.

‘This could be part of a general radio-phobic response,’ explains Dr Sanderson. ‘Some products have had to be remanufactured using un-irradiated materials to satisfy consumer demand. We are doing the right thing to ask for the labelling to be accurate. There is no question about that whatsoever. It is also what the European Directive on Food Irradiation and UK law require. But the paradox is that consumers preferences for un-irradiated food might lead to greater use of chemicals and fumigants, or to higher microbial loads, in products that they are consuming.’