Food Preservation and Storage

Food Preservation Storage

Lesson 13: Food irradiation

Mode of Action

Irradiation can directly impair critical cell functions or components like DNA and indirectly form radiolytic products/ free radicals from water, which are responsible for 90 per cent of DNA damage. Irradiation results in a variety of changes in living cells based on the dosage. For example- high doses kill microbes/ insects; low doses destroy some of the enzymes that lead to fruit ripening, thereby, delaying it and it also interfere with cell division, thereby limiting/ preventing the reproduction of microbes, insects, parasites, etc.