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W. CHAPPAS, Damalic Corp., 14670 Southlawn Lane, Rockville, MD 20850

Although the use of radiation to process meat is only now becoming a reality, its use as a major industrial processing tool began more 40 years ago. Spurred by solid-state electronics, and innovative wire, cable, and heat-shrink applications, the radiation processing industry has now grown to become an international multibillion-dollar-per-year industry. Today, the expensive and unreliable accelerators of research laboratories have become workhorse tools for industry. The successful application of this technology for food processing will only occur if radiation’s remarkable characteristics—that of a very powerful form of energy—are understood and fully exploited. In many applications, this can and does produce profound effects in materials. Often, these are effects that can be produced in no other way and with efficiencies that often render the unit cost of the treatment exceptionally low. This presentation will discuss the forms of ionizing radiation most practical to the meat-processing industry and the ways in which each interact with typical foods and their packaging. It will also be shown how these initial interactions can produce a range of chemically reactive species that kill bacteria. Unfortunately, it can also cause color and odor changes. Based on our understanding of the physics and chemistry, some of these color and odor changes will be discussed and how our understanding of the fundamental processes can be used to estimate the production of potentially deleterious byproducts. Finally, these and other fundamental processes that affect quality and dosimetry will be reviewed.