ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the role of various factors which influence radiolytic effects in foods. Another motive has become the major stimulus for research on radiolytic effects in irradiated foods: radiation chemistry was recognized as a basis for evaluating the wholesomeness or irradiated foods. The radiation chemistry of the single-component food items does not therefore require extensive discussion in the text. The chapter points to the important role played by radiation chemical studies in establishing the health safety of irradiated foods. The importance of the effects depends on radiation dose, atmosphere, composition of the irradiated foodstuffs, and probably on other factors, such as temperature during irradiation and storage. There are many indications of postirradiation changes occurring in irradiated foodstuffs, some of which are of technological and/or nutritional interest. Radiation-induced alterations in foodstuffs of complex composition may be quantitatively very small and yet very undesirable.
