{"id":11049,"date":"2021-07-01T21:43:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T13:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thefooduntold.com\/?p=11049"},"modified":"2022-10-01T09:46:01","modified_gmt":"2022-10-01T01:46:01","slug":"food-irradiation-everything-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefooduntold.com\/food-science\/food-irradiation-everything-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Irradiation: Everything You Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Food irradiation is commonly known as one of the many ways of prolonging the shelf life of food. However, backed by decades of research, this technology is also effective in: inhibition of sprout development in certain crops, delaying ripening in fruits, and sterilization of packaging materials, to name a few. Aside from its versatility, the operating cost, and energy requirement are relatively low, and the procedure is automatically controlled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the high capital cost necessary in building an irradiation facility is holding this technology back. The initial investment cost typically ranges between $1 million up to $5 million. Another is the slow consumer acceptance due in large part of the potential negative effects. These are the reasons why food irradiation is not yet widely practiced. In fact, only\u00a0 30% of all the countries worldwide have at least 1 irradiation treatment facility. While some are still in pilot stage. And to add to that, a large portion of irradiated food do not even enter international trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you are wondering, food irradiation is not a novel technology.<\/gwmw><\/gwmw><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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