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Irradiation could be a solution for food wastage – BARC
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Thursday, 16 December, 2010, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Irum Khan, Mumbai
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The recent damning reports on food wastage in the media were so startling that even the Supreme Court could not help but interfere with the administrative procedures of the country. Whether the intervention of a legal body in the legislative matter was justified is a different and a debatable issue, but what came to fore was the unforgivable handling of food grains taking place at the warehouses and godowns in the country. Almost 6 lakh tonnes of food grains go down the drain in the process of transit and storage, an amount good enough to feed 10 million people for almost a year.
Ill-equipped godowns with inadequate shelter has been the fate of the food grains going to the PDS for public distribution. To renovate these godowns and recruit a constant quality control monitor manual/automatic is a task not easy by all means, but a little support of science if taken would pave the way for fulfilling the vision of a lesser hungry and more secured India, as seen by all.
The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre certainly has a solution. “A large majority of these food losses and food borne illness can be prevented by using appropriate technologies like radiation processing in combination with improved packaging, handling and distribution practices. Food irradiation is a century-old technology but poorly understood by the government, and corporate decision makers,” said Arun Sharma, Head, Food Technology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
BARC has the oldest lab in the world dedicated to the food processing through radiation technology, which the scientists there claim would provide an alchemist touch in improving the quality of grains that India produces.
The beginning
The research on radiation processing of food which started way back in 1950s culminated in the setting up of a lab in 1966-- The Food Irradiation Processing laboratory in India. It was the only lab in South Asia to experiment with radiation and food. The first plant for pilot-scale studies, the Food Package Irradiator, was commissioned in Trombay in 1967. Thus food irradiation technology has been the subject of R&D in BARC for more than five decades. In 1970s, large scale studies on irradiation of wheat and onion were carried out in collaboration with Food Corporation of India (FCI) and National Agricultural Marketing Federation (NAFED) now National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF), Nashik, respectively. Studies were also carried out on assessing the safety and nutritional adequacy of irradiated foods and efforts were made to clear all doubts on the risk of irradiated products.
Then in the year 1981, a WHO (World Health Organisation)-FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) - (IAEA) International Atomic Energy Agency) expert committee was formed to study the global data on wholesomeness and safety of irradiated food collected up to that time. The expert committee concluded that any irradiation of any commodity up to an overall dose of 10 kGy presented no toxological hazards and introduced no special nutritional or microbiological problem. In I983 Codex Alimentarius Commission, a body under the FAO, approved the use of radiation for food processing and published Codex General Standard for irradiated food.
In 1986, the government set up a National Monitoring Agency to oversee commercial application of radiation processing of food. Subsequently, Atomic Energy Act and Prevention of Food Adulteration Act were amended to establish rules for allowing radiation processing of food.
Food irradiation is a physical process in which food and agricultural commodities, pre-packed or in bulk, are exposed to a controlled amount of energy to achieve desirable results such as inhibition of sprouting, delay in ripening, killing of insects, parasites, pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms.
Ionizing radiation is a cold, non-residue forming and environment friendly means for processing a variety of food and food products. It not only destroys contaminating microbes that endanger our health and food/fruit bone insects but also ensures longer shelf life through effects such as delayed ripening of fruits or inhibition of sprouting of bulb or tubers.
The technology has been found to be an effective alternative for reducing food losses, improving food safety and providing international market access to our agricultural products. Studies carried out in the BARC and elsewhere in the world have established the safety and wholesomeness of radiation of processed foods. International and national regulatory agencies around the world have endorsed this technology. In the past few years the technology has also seen some commercial success around the world. However, the potential of the technology is tremendous and remains to be harnessed in our country.
“ The FCI has to take up radiation processing of grains on large scale. A significant amount of our agricultural produce is lost due to spoilage by insects, pests and microbes. Microbial contaminants that cause human illness and produce toxins also make our food unsafe for consumption. Radiation processing can complement or supplement conventional food processing methods. It can be used for strengthening our food security, food safety and management of long supply chains. It can facilitate international trade by overcoming quality and quarantine barriers, “ said Dr Sharma.
Currently, India is not using the technology except for mangoes which are being exported to the US. These mangoes are being irradiated since the last four years. India and Australia were the first countries to have used this technology on fruits (mangoes). Currently onions, potato, shallots (small onion), garlic, ginger, rice, semolina (suji/rawa), wheat atta and maida, pulses, dried-seafood, raisins, figs and dried dates, mango, meat and meat products, fresh seafood, frozen seafood and spices are permitted for irradiation under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. However, a generic food class-wise approval, which is under consideration of the government, can increase the product range and thus the economic viability of the irradiation plants.
Fumigation vs Radiation
Radiation technology for preservation of food grains could prove to be amazingly effective. “ Currently the food grains are treated with chemical fumigants . However, this technique endangers both human health and environment. This technique leaves residue which is dangerous for human health. Also, fumigants only kill the adult insects, but irradiation stops the growth of insects at the larval stages, kills the laid eggs, sterilise adult insects and is environmental friendly. Fumigation is required to be carried out at an interval of 3-6 months, whereas, irradiation is a one-time treatment,” said Dr Sharma.
Radiation and Sources Approved for processing are:
● Gamma radiation ( 1.17/1.33 MeV) emitted by Cobalt-60 radiostopes.
● Gama radiation (0.66 MeV) emitted by cesium -137 radioisotope.
● X-rays from machine sources of energies not exceeding 7.5 MeV, and
● Electrons from machine sources of energies not exceeding 10MeV.
Cost
A Cobalt 60 based plant would cost around Rs 10 crore to set-up, excluding the supporting ancillary services.
On the other hand, the electron accelerator would need around Rs 14-15 crore for the machinery.
“On an average using the technology for around 300 days in a year, where the facility is run for 2-3 shifts a day, would be an economically viable proposition, “ said Dr Sharma.
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