Historical Aspects of the Radiation Preservation of Food

In 1809 Nicolas Appert received a prize from the French Government for the invention of a thermal method of food preservation which made perishable goods stable when stored without refrigeration, thus making a new type of rations available for use to French troops in the field. Appert invested the prize money in the first food canning factory in the world. In the early 1950s only token support had been given by the United States (US) Government to food irradiation research and, as late as 1951, the Department of Agriculture and the Army Quartermaster Corps had refused fiscal assistance to the Electronized Chemical Corp., contending that private enterprise should pay for commercial development. Members of the US Congress became interested in the food irradiation program and on March 31 and April 1, 1954, a public hearing was held by the Subcommittee on Atomic Energy, on the use of isotopes in agriculture.