Irradiation - Food Shelf Life Stability: Chemical, Biochemical, and Microbiological Changes - page 113

For meat, poultry, and seafood, irradiation is considered to be a viable alternative
for improving their safety. There are two radiation processes used, radurization for
shelf life improvement in refrigerated storage and radicidation to prevent food
poisoning by destruction of pathogenic organisms. Successful radurization of meat
has been achieved, 275 but there is little interest in the process in industrialized
countries where deep freezing is available for extended storage of meat. Radicidation
of meat and poultry to prevent foodborne infections is of potential interest in all
countries. The major organisms, Salmonella and Campylobacter , are easily destroyed
by radiation so health officials have advocated irradiation of meat and poultry as a
means to eliminate these and other pathogens. The situation in seafood is very
similar, with radicidation being used to eliminate harmful pathogens such as Sal-
monella, Vibrio parahaemolytica , and Shigella from shellfish. Seafood is an ideal
candidate for irradiation in that the expensive plant required for the process can be
built at a central seaport facility.

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