The Application Of Radiation Technology For Food Preservation.

As the aim for self-support in the field of food in Indonesia is beginning to be accomplished, steps to secure food from spoilage during storage should receive more attention. The problems of food preservation in a . broad sense, ranging from the desire to preserve excessive food supply known from ancient times, to the need of saving food from spoilage due to extraneous factors,

cause expertsJo de-velop v3fious food preservation techniques which are now known and widely applied by the people. Radiation technology which was first introduced to the industry and society a quarter of a century ago, is now widely utilized by various industries with profits amounting trillions of rupiah. Food preservation had for a long time been touched also by this radiation technolo-gy, and many countries of five continents have already utilized this technique on various food commodities and foods, which have then been released to be consumed by the society, such as fruits, vegetables, spices, marine products, meat, prepared food, wheat and potatoes. In an era where energy supply should be always taken into consideration, radiation as a modern, low energy technology is gaining attention. Compared with heat pasteurization, this technology practically saves 99% of energy. The technology gives many other benefits, i.e., it is easier to be controled, it can be applied when the commodity is already packed, does not need extensive material" and gives a better quality of products (higher value), while on the other hand mini-mized pollution. Irradiation cost is largely determined by the capacity of the irradiator to be built and the irradiation dose to· be applied. For an irradiator with the capacity of 8 tons of commodity/hour, and a dose of 30 krad (0,3 kGy) and an operation time of 8,000 hours/year, the radiation cost is approximately Rp 4,-/kg commodity. By. Mohammad Ridwan* (* Badan Tenaga Atom Nasional)