Interesting Topic, Food Safety

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I just had an interesting discussion with one of my sons who believes he knows everything there is to know about everything. I told him that a friends I grew up with had been stationed aboard a nuke submarine, and they didn't need refrigerators to keep food fresh. Instead, the food was exposed to gamma radiation, which destroyed all pathogens, making the food shelf stable. My son told me that that wasn't possible as gamma rays were more powerful than xrays, and doctors stayed behind protective shields to prevent being exposed to xrays.

I tried to explain to him that yes, xrays and gamma rays are harmful to the body. But that irradiating foods with them leaves no radioactive particles on the food. Gamma radiation, xrays, ultraviolet, infra-red, and white light are all the same thing, just at different frequencies. wave radiation is powerful enough to punch little atomic holes through your body, which can damage and disrupt DNA and RNA, and cause cancers, and radiation sickness. But they don't leave you radioactive. Infra-red is a long, relatively weak radiation that gives up its energy quickly in the skin, exciting the molecules to produce heat.They are wavelengths of photons. High energy, short wave radiation simply passes through you, leaving noting but damage. It is great at making perishable foods shelf stable as gamma radiation is powerful enough to pass through sealed containers, making everything inside sterile.

Most people are afraid of irradiated food, and yet, it's safer than the preservatives we flood our bodies with on a daily basis.

Ok, that's my strange topic for the day.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[roadfix]

My dad used to microwave milk and other perishable food for a few seconds before putting them in the fridge. He honestly believed they lasted way beyond their expiration dates.

 

[pepperhead212]

Though I'm just guessing, I think some of the spices we get from other countries are irradiated, to prevent insects and diseases entering the country, not that we would get, but our food plants would get (maybe this is how they started importing Szechwan peppercorns again, to kill that citrus disease they were bringing in). And if you try to germinate the seeds, they won't germinate! I've tried a number of peppers, as well as spices, that would not have a single seed germinate, and I would put a large number of them in a seed sprouter. No big deal, unless you are trying to grow them, like me!

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

My dad used to microwave milk and other perishable food for a few seconds before putting them in the fridge. He honestly believed they lasted way beyond their expiration dates.

Microwaves - radio energy, i.e. electro-magnetic energy, passed through waveguides and created by either a tuned magnetron, or klystron.Tjis is the same energy used by radar, hence the original name - radar range. By the way, RADAR strands for radio distance and ranging.

Microwaves are not part of the light spectrum as are gamma, and xrays. I guess if you micfrowave the food hot enough, it will pasteurize it.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[taxlady]

I try to avoid irradiated food. I do understand that it won't give off radiation. My concern is that if it ever gets to be mainstream, the regulations on how many insect parts and how much rodent hair and poop is allowed in the food, will change to allow for more, since it wouldn't be pathogenic.

Even if irradiated rodent and insect poop is harmless, I don't want more poop in my food.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

I can understand that.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[dcSaute]

https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/food-irradiation-what-you-need-know
recaps the subject.
many other sources state no consumer available spices/herbs are marketed; but one can always look for the irradiated symbol, which is required by law.