Food Irradiation

Dear Colleagues,

In spite of the technologies developed over the last decade, the level of food loss is still high as reported in many countries. According to the United Nations, more than 30% of the mortality rate world-wide is caused by alimentary diseases. In the United States, it was estimated that major known pathogens acquired caused 9.4 million episodes of foodborne illness, resulting in 55,961 hospitalizations and 1,351 deaths. In Canada, foodborne pathogens are responsible for more than 13 million illnesses each year. Therefore, controlling foodborne pathogens in food products is of utmost importance. Also, the desire of most countries to make food safer for consumption requires better food preservation and production techniques. In this regard, irradiation is an interesting alternative to be considered. Irradiation is a process that has been used for disinfestation, for the inhibition of germination, for pasteurization or even for food sterilization. This technique is also used for extending shelf life.

Some agricultural products are important commodities in international trade. The trade of these products is often seriously hampered by infestation of several species of insects and mites. The presence of parasites, some micro-organisms, yeast and moulds are also the source of problems sometimes directly or indirectly caused by toxin formation in food products.

Irradiation alone or combined with others processes, can contribute to insuring food safety to healthy and compromised consumers (pregnant mothers, immuno-compromised AIDS patients, medicated people and ageing persons), satisfying quarantine requirements and controlling severe losses during transportation and commercialisation.

The use of irradiation for decontamination of foods is a promising technology that could be applied on the end product.

This technology also has the advantage that it can be applied on spices and cereal and on fresh, frozen or on cooked products. It is a physical, safe, environmentally clean and efficient technology.

Prof. Dr. Monique Lacroix
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• food irradiation technology
• effects of food irradiation
• quality and safety of irradiated foods
• regulation and policies
• consumer acceptance