The early history of food irradiation

Immediately after the discovery of ionizing radiation speculations arose to use it for therapeutic treatment and also for food preservation. However, at that time no radiation sources suitable for such applications had been available. With the development of (military) nuclear technologies suitable radiation sources became more and more available. This article narrates the many early ideas developed and the approaches taken. However, on the level of industrial exploitation of radiation processing of food, several such great ideas could not survive; some are still playing a niche role today as described in the respective articles. Nevertheless and today, radiation processing of food has become a standard technology world-wide.