Abstract:

An improved thermoluminescence method to detect irradiated food was proposed. Food samples were screened
using the first glow curve, and six screened samples were further identified using thermoluminescence glow ratio. Results
showed that the improved thermoluminescence method could achieve 100% detection accuracy, and the samples to be
irradiated with reference dose and measured subsequently accounted for only 33.3% of those to be screened with BS EN
1788 method. Furthermore, this proportion can be further reduced if the high and low thresholds (HT and LT) of screening
were optimized. The improved thermalluminescence method can significantly enhance the efficiency of detection and reduce
the cost and thus is reasonable and feasible.

Key words: irradiated food, thermoluminescence, detection, improvement, efficiency