Food processors requirements met by radiation processing

Processing food using irradiation provides significant advantages to food producers by destroying harmful pathogens and extending shelf life without any detectable physical or chemical changes. It is expected that through increased public education, food irradiation will emerge as a viable commercial industry. Food production in most countries involves state of the art manufacturing, packaging, labeling, and shipping techniques that provides maximum efficiency and profit. In the United States, food sales are extremely competitive and profit margins small. Most food producers have heavily invested in equipment and are hesitant to modify their equipment. Meat and poultry producers in particular utilize sophisticated production machinery that processes enormous volumes of product on a continuous basis. It is incumbent on the food irradiation equipment suppliers to develop equipment that can easily merge with existing processes without requiring major changes to either the final food product or the process utilized to produce that product. Before a food producer can include irradiation as part of their food production process, they must be certain the available equipment meets their needs. This paper will examine several major requirements of food processors that will most likely have to be provided by the supplier of the irradiation equipment. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.