Sterilization of food in general through High-temperature high-temperature Thermal sterilization (120 ℃ sterilization), steam sterilization, cooking sterilization pot, microwave sterilization equipment, irradiation sterilization. Recently, media reports: In the Sichuan Atomic Energy Research Institute Radiation Engineering Center in the use of radioactive sources to pepper chicken claws sterilization content, China is the world's nuclear power, nuclear technology utilization of the country, the total scale is ranked third in the world.
The application of radiation based Ray technology has been widely used in the fields of industry, agriculture, medicine, resources, environment, military and scientific research. In the food industry, food irradiation since the end of 19th century (1895) Roentgen found X-ray, Mink (1896) on the proposed X-ray bactericidal effect. But it was not until the Second World War that the research and application of radiation-preserving food had a substantial beginning. Food irradiation is the use of radiation irradiation of food (including raw materials), delaying the development of certain physiological processes (germination and maturation) of fresh food, or the treatment of food for insecticidal, disinfection, sterilization, mildew, etc., to extend the preservation time, stability, improve food quality purposes of the operation process. Chen, president of Sichuan Provincial Atomic Energy Research Institute, said: "In the sterilization process, the radioactive source will never contact the food, there is no possibility of contamination of food, radiation after the food is not radioactive." Scientists from all over the world have studied the safety of nuclear technology in food sterilization for more than more than 40 years, after long-term animal experiment and human test, it is proved that the agricultural products and their processed products under a certain dose do not produce radioactivity, do not produce poisonous substances, and have no effect on nutritive value.