50 Years of Food Irradiation in India: A Safe and Eco-friendly Technology that Remains Underutilized

摘要

Food irradiation was a project that Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the father of Indian nuclear program, and the first Chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), envisioned to demonstrate peaceful uses of atom for the larger benefit of society. With the help of his scientist-friends in Canada and USA, he laid the foundation for a state-of-the-art food irradiation facility, known as Food Irradiation Processing Laboratory (FIPLY), at the Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay (AEET), later named Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), as a tribute to his memory. FIPLY was commissioned in 1967, nearly a year after his unfortunate death in the crash of 'Kanchenjunga', the Air India's Boeing 707 plane, on Mont Blanc of Swiss Alps in 1966.