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IRRADIATED FOOD: VALIDITY OF EXTRAPOLATING WHOLESOMENESS DATA
Author(s) -
TAUB I. A.,
ANGELINI P.,
MERRITT C.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
journal of food science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1750-3841
pISSN - 0022-1147
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2621.1976.tb00757_41_4.x
Subject(s) - radiolysis , irradiation , extrapolation , food irradiation , food science , food products , environmental science , toxicology , chemistry , environmental chemistry , radiochemistry , biology , mathematics , statistics , physics , nuclear physics
Criteria are considered for validly extrapolating the conclusions reached on the wholesomeness of an irradiated food receiving high doses to the same food receiving a lower dose. A consideration first is made of the possible chemical mechanisms that could give rise to different functional dependences of radiolytic products on dose. It is shown that such products should increase linearly with dose and the ratio of products should be constant throughout the dose range considered The assumption, generally accepted in pharmacology, then is made that if any adverse effects related to the food are discerned in the test animals, then the intensity of these effects would increase with the concentration of radiolytic products in the food. Lastly, the need to compare data from animal studies with foods irradiated to several doses against chemical evidence obtained over a comparable dose range is considered. It is concluded that if the products depend linearly on dose and if feeding studies indicate no adverse effects, then an extrapolation to lower doses is clearly valid. This approach is illustrated for irradiated codfish The formation of selected volatile products in samples receiving between 0.1 and 3 Mrads was examined, and their concentrations were found to increase linearly at least up to 1 Mrad. These data were compared with results from animal feeding studies establishing the wholesomeness of codfish and haddock irradiated to 0.2, 0.6 and 2.8 Mrads. It is stated, therefore, that if ocean fish, currently under consideration for onboard processing, were irradiated to 0.1 Mrad, it would be correspondingly wholesome.