Mutagenicity tests with irradiated food in the mouse

Male and female mice from BALB/c strain received normal food or food irradiated with a mean dose of about 2.85 Mrad of gamma-rays. Three different tests were performed on mice fed for one month with control or irradiated pellets: estimation of prenatal loss and examination of somatic and male germ cells for the presence of chromosome aberrations. The negative results obtained in the three tests demonstrate that ingestion of irradiated food has no mutagenic effects large enough to be detected by the methods which were used.