ABSTRACT
The nutritional value of a food is determined by the energy it makes available (expressed in calories or joules) and by its content and the availability of some 50 compounds which are essential for normal growth and maintenance of the human organism. Numerous investigations have been carried out to study the nutritional adequacy of irradiated foods under various conditions and several reviews of this work are available (1-7). The nature and extent of the effects of ionizing radiation on nutrients depend on the composition of the food, on the radiation dose, and on modifying factors such as temperature and the presence or absence of oxygen. In order to learn about unexpected influences of irradiation on various properties of foodstuffs scientists have sometimes worked with radiation doses much too high for any practical application. Far-reaching conclusions concerning radiationinduced nutrient losses have often been based on such exploratory studies with high radiation doses. A realistic evaluation of the effects of radiation on the nutritional quality of foods, however, must be based on experiments carried out with radiation dose levels actually used in practice or proposed for practical application.
