Insect disinfestation contributes to serious post-harvest losses of dried fruit in many countries. The use of irradiation as an alternative to the use of chemical fumigants is attractive.
Irradiation also used to disinfestation and decontamination of other foods such as spices.
Radiation procedures are expensive and generally require stationery equipment and extensive safety precautions.
Radiation disinfestations and shelf-life extension can reduce the food losses of fresh foods. A great deal of the postharvest losses due to insect infestation can be controlled and minimized by irradiating foods such as grains, pulse, tubers and fruits.
The effect of radiation is based on photochemical reactions and on the generation of radicals, ions and their reaction products. These interfere with the metabolism of living cells, thus leading to cell death.
Numerous commodities have been treated with gamma radiation to disinfect stored product insects. An advantage of radiation processing of food over thermal pasteurization processes is that the former does not change the flavor of the food product.
Radiation infestation
The most popular articles
-
Technology, Land of Agriculture and People How does the succession of various agricultural technology clusters since the early 19th centu... -
Chalcones are a group of naturally occurring compounds found in a variety of plants, renowned for their diverse biological activities and po... -
Vanilla is grown within 10-20 degrees of the equator. Most of the world's vanilla production is concentrated in a handful of Indian Ocea... -
Coffee Harvesting Coffee harvesting may have different objective depending in the method of processing as well as the availability and cost ...
-
Roundup herbicide has been a commercial product since 1974. During these period, the use have expanded from non-crop uses on perennial weeds...