Directive 1999/2/EC: General – Bringing together the EU countries' laws
Directive 1999/3/EC: Implementing – EU list of irradiated food and food ingredients
EU countries must use validated or standardised analytical methods to detect irradiated foods.
Foods & food ingredients authorised for irradiation in the EU
Currently, these are:
- Fruit and vegetables including root vegetables
- Cereals, cereal flakes, rice flour
- Spices, condiments
- Fish, shellfish
- Fresh meats, poultry, frog legs
- Raw milk camembert
- Gum arabic, casein/caseinates, egg white
- Blood products
The list of Member States’ authorisations of food and food ingredients which may be treated with ionising radiation is available here.
Analytical methods
The analytical methods for the detection of irradiated foods are standardised by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN). CEN has standardised the methods upon a Commission mandate.
The European standards have been adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission as General Methods and are referred to in the Codex General Standard for Irradiated Foods in section 6.4 on 'Post-irradiation verification'.
- Detection of irradiated food containing fat - Gas chromatographic analysis of hydrocarbons
- Detection of irradiated food containing fat - Gas chromatographic/mass spectrometric analysis of 2-alkylcyclobutanones updated
- Detection of irradiated food containing bone - Method by ESR spectroscopy
- Detection of irradiated food containing cellulose by ESR spectroscopy
- Thermoluminescence detection of irradiated food from which silicate minerals can be isolated
- Detection of irradiated food containing crystalline sugar by ESR spectroscopy
- Detection of irradiated food using photostimulated luminescence
- Detection of irradiated food using Direct Epifluorescent Filter Technique/Aerobic Plate Count (DEFT/APC) - Screening method
- DNA comet assay for the detection of irradiated foodstuffs - Screening method
- Microbiological screening for irradiated food using LAL/GNB procedures