But food sterilization is best done in-container, and processors have few options when packaging products prior to irradiation. Section 179.45 of the Code of Federal Regulations’ Title 21 only lists 10 approved packaging materials for use during food irradiation, half of which are obsolete. Modern polymers need to be added to the list if the food industry is to utilize irradiation to deliver safer foods to consumers. A team assembled by the NationalCenter for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST) in suburban Chicago has sought to expand the list of available options. Heading the team is George D. Sadler, a food chemist and packaging professor at Chicago’s Illinois Institute of Technology. NCFST is a unique processor/academic/regulatory alliance formed to address the industry’s leading technological challenges. Sponsors include IIT, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and corporate heavyweights such as Kraft Foods, Tetra Pak Inc. and Cryovac.
When a substance is exposed to radiation, chemical bonds between atoms are destroyed, creating ions and free radicals. Ions and free-radicals are inherently unstable, and health authorities want assurances that they won’t decompose the polymer and create toxic substances.