Hydrogen as a marker for irradiated food

摘要

Hydrogen is a radiolysis product of water and many other food components; normally it diffuses away rapidly, but it can be. useful as a marker in irradiated frozen chicken (Hithcock, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,b). Samples are thawed in a sealed 'sample' vessel, and the headspace recirculated via silicone rubber tubing through a similar 'detector' vessel containing a specific electronic sensor, and thence round a closed 'analysis' loop by means of a small air pump. This published procedure has been somewhat modified to allow its application to other frozen foods and to foods containing solids at ambient temperatures. Recent work has now confirmed the reliability of the modified method to detect irradiated frozen food samples, and has demonstrated its application to the analysis of certain irradiated unfrozen solid samples. The effect of storage, either at -18℃ or at +20℃ has also been tested.