Final answer:
Food irradiation, which often uses cobalt-60 or cesium-137, does not leave the food radioactive and is considered safe. While it causes minimal nutritional changes and may affect taste or smell, there is no substantial risk from consuming irradiated foods.
Step-by-step explanation:
When food is exposed to gamma radiation, it goes through food irradiation, a process that kills microorganisms, like bacteria, extending the shelf life of products. This method typically uses cobalt-60 or cesium-137 but does not make the food itself radioactive.
The food is passed through a radiation chamber on a conveyor belt, securely separated from the radioactive material. As a result, there's no risk of consuming radioactive material from eating gamma-irradiated foods.
Irradiated foods are not significantly altered in their nutritious quality, though there may be a minimal loss of certain vitamins, which similarly occurs through extended storage. The taste or smell alterations in high-fat content foods can often be minimized by adjusting the dosage and temperature during the irradiation process.
The safety debate of irradiated food focuses on the radiolytic products formed during ionization. While critics suggest these may pose hazards such as being carcinogenic, scientific evidence indicates that low-level food irradiation does not produce measurable harmful compounds.
Moreover, no negative short-term effects have been observed in humans, and the long-term effects of consuming irradiated food are not well-documented. Nevertheless, entities like the World Health Organization and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization endorse the safety of this process at standard doses.