ABSTRACT
After a recent nuclear accident (Chernobyl), it became
evident that there was a serious need for reliable mea-
surements of radionuclides in a variety of foodstuffs.
This chapter of the handbook summarizes information
on measurements of radionuclides in food. There is a
compilation of guidelines for collecting, preparing, and
analyzing basic food for radionuclides of interest. Since the 1960s the focus of a number of interna-
tional organizations, e.g., FAO, UNSCEAR, WHO,
and WMO, has been on methods of radiochemical
analysis. In response to a request from the Member
States, the Fallout Radioactivity Monitoring in the
Environment and Food (MEF) Program was establi-
shed by the IAEA, and an excellent guidebook called
Measurement of Radionuclides in Food and the Environ-
ment (1) was prepared. Together with other documents
(2-5), this guidebook was used as background material
for the guidelines. This chapter does not contain detailed instructions
for the measurement of the respective radionuclides in
individual foodstuffs because they are very extensive,
but we give references. It is also recognized that the
reliability of these recommended methods depends
largely on the laboratory techniques. Such a labora-
tory requires special counters and methods for radio-
activity measurements. To obtain reliable results the
measurements must be based on standards and cali-
brations provided either by the central specialized
laboratory, or on interlaboratory comparisons.
