Analysing Foods for Radioactive Substances
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In cooperation with the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) is to analyse foods prepared within the scope of the BfR MEAL Study for radiation caused by radioactive elements such as uranium. Main focus will be on the foods most often consumed by the population in Germany. These include cereal products, vegetables and potatoes, dairy products, meat and fish.
"Even though radiation emitting radioactive elements like uranium are only contained in small quantities in food, their chemical properties and radioactivity could pose a risk if they are ingested over a longer period in higher concentrations. The actual risk is now being assessed within the scope of the cooperation with the BfS," explains BfR President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel. "In this way, the BfS and BfR will jointly obtain more data for risk assessment," Hensel adds.
"Humans cannot perceive or feel radiation with their senses," says Wolfram König, President of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, "so people must have valid and reliable data, which we provide. This joint study should help us gain a better understanding of possible or negligible risks and enable us to compare and classify them".
In the BfR MEAL Study, the BfR is examining foods for the first time in Germany for various substances such as nutrients, heavy metals and food additives in order to determine the mean concentrations of these substances in the average human diet. Of the foods already prepared in the kitchen of the BfR MEAL study in typical home-cooked fashion, the BfS is given selected samples to examine for various natural radionuclides such as uranium, radium-226, radium-228 and lead-210. The background of this is that natural radionuclides can occur in different concentrations and combinations in rock and minerals everywhere in the environment, which means that they can also be contained in foods.
This article has been republished from materials provided by BFR Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.
