Making Food Safer with Nuclear Technology.

WUNDERLIN D.A.

Viena

Conferencia; IAEA- WORLD SCIENTIFIC FORUM; 2016

IAEA- UNITED NATIONS

The need to increase food productionis a worldwide challenge to achieve the global goal of zero hunger.  To achieve this goal, many countries aredeveloping intensive food production by several methods, including an increaseduse of the land for modern and sustainable agriculture, an increased use ofaquatic resources for sustainable aquaculture, improvements in food technologyto ensure longer and better preservation and transportation of foods, bettersanitary controls, etc.On the other hand, the food tradesuffers from problems associated with counterfeits, adulterations, lack ofcertainty on the origin of some products and, uncertainty on food safety. Allof these facts conspire again food safety. For instance, in some circumstances,foods produced in a particular area are banned by regulatory bodies because ofthe use of banned agrochemicals and veterinary drugs, the presence of naturalor synthetic toxics, food production in non-safe environments, etc. To skipprohibitions, some unscrupulous producers/ merchants send banned products to asecond country, usually a developing country, from where banned products areexported, endangering the health of people consuming such unsafe foods. Toavoid this practice, the concept of food traceability has been developed, and isbecoming in practice worldwide. In addition, much research efforts arededicated to evaluate markers that allow the verification of food origin byobjective, scientific methods. Among different methods used to verify thegeographical origin of foods, the use of stable isotopes (non-radioactivenatural atoms) is becoming more and more popular in recent years. Thus, onepart of this presentation will be dedicated to explain how stable isotopes canbe used to differentiate the origin of food. Some practical examples andchallenges of the method will be also discussed.Although scientific are evaluating severalapproaches to ensure food authenticity and origin, there is still a lack oftested, reliable protocols allowing the differentiation between foods producedat either clean or polluted areas. For instance, nowadays, aquaculture isgrowing fast to become the main source of animal protein in the near future.Production of fish under controlled, sustainable and safe conditions is achallenge for countries involved in aquaculture production. Unfortunately,water pollution is a worldwide problem, which is not exclusive for developedcountries but also evident in developing nations. Thus, the verification of theabsence of pollutants, in addition to the evaluation of markers pointing outlow water pollution in producing areas, is a challenge for the future ofaquaculture and, consequently, for safe fish production. Thus, a second part ofthis presentation will address how stable isotopes and related methods can beused to verify if a fishery product has been produced at either clean orpolluted area. Challenges and some practical examples will be presented totrigger the discussion and interest of the audience