Application of Photostimulated Luminescence to Detection of Irradiated Foods

It was determined whether photostimulated luminescence (PSL) is applicable to the detection of post-irradiation of foods by measuring PSL photon counts for unirradiated and irradiated pepper powder, dried herbs, fresh shrimp, potato, soybean, dried fig, chestnut, dried squid, and dried cod. The samples were irradiated with source and PSL photon counts were measured for them. The photon counts of unirradiated samples were lower than 2,000 for potatoes and less than 1,000 for the others. The photon counts of the irradiated samples except dried figs (0.5 kGy), chestnuts (0.2 kGy), and dried squid (0.5 kGy) were higher than 1,000, and the photon counts increased with dose. Thus, PSL might be applied to the primary detection of irradiated foods.