Impact of irradiation on fish and seafood shelf life: a comprehensive review of applications and irradiation detection

Irradiation is one of the most important and effective methods towards food preservation despite the consumer lack of trust and aversion towards this method. Irradiation effectiveness greatly depends on the dose provided to food. This review aims at summarizing all available information regarding the impact of irradiation dose on the shelf life and microflora and sensory and physical properties of fish, shellfish, molluscs, and crustaceans. The synergistic effect of irradiation in conjunction with other techniques such as salting, smoking, freezing, and vacuum packaging was also reported. Another issue covered within the frame of this review is the detection (comparison of methods in terms of their effectiveness and validity) of irradiated fish and seafood. The information related to fish and seafood irradiation and its detection is presented by means of 11 comprehensive tables and 9 figures.