The DNA 'comet assay' as a rapid screening technique to control irradiated food

The exposure of food to ionizing radiation is being progressively used in many countries to inactivate food pathogens, to eradicate pests, and to extend shelf-life, thereby contributing to a safer and more plentiful food supply. To ensure free consumer choice, irradiated food will be labelled as such, and to enforce labelling, analytical methods to detect the irradiation treatment in the food product itself are desirable. In particular, there is a need for simple and rapid screening methods for the control of irradiated food. The DNA comet assay offers great potential as a rapid tool to detect whether a wide variety of foodstuffs have been radiation processed. In order to simplify the test, the agarose single-layer set-up has been chosen, using a neutral protocol. Interlaboratory blind trials have been successfully carried out with a number of food products, both of animal and plant origin. This paper presents an overview of the hitherto obtained results and in addition the results of an intercomparison test with seeds, dried fruits and spices are described. In this intercomparison, an identification rate of 95% was achieved. Thus, using this novel technique, an effective screening of radiation-induced DNA fragmentation is obtained. Since other food treatments also may cause DNA fragmentation, samples with fragmented DNA suspected to have been irradiated should be analyzed by other validated methods for irradiated food, if such treatments which damage DNA cannot be excluded.