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<p>DSTL will use their pre-existing knowledge and experience of developing and assessing security inspection equipment and their contacts within academia, industry and government to carry out a desk study that will provide information on current systems and on likely future developments. The focus will be on determining radiation output characteristics such as radiation energy, radiation intensity, exposure duration etc. This will take place over a 12 month period in which the first 6 months will focus on researching current equipment and the second 6 months on future developments. In the final 6 months, Dstl will carry out a comparison of radiation emissions with regulatory limits and implications for food safety and produce a final report covering all phases of the project.</p>
Background: The Food Standards Agency has identified a need to consider the extent to which the widespread and increasing use of ionising radiations in security inspection devices for examining cargo, baggage and packages might result in breaches of regulations for the irradiation of foodstuffs. There is also a need to address public concern in this area. To inform this debate, the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory will use its pre-existing experience in developing and assessing inspection systems to:
<ul><li>Review current technologies that utilise ionising radiation for security inspection to determine the ranges of energies and intensities of the radiation</li>
<li>Through a process of horizon-scanning, assess potential future developments and the ranges of energies and intensities of the radiation in future systems</li>
<li>Calculate the radiation doses likely to be delivered to foodstuffs by these systems and compare the doses and the equipment parameters with regulatory limits to ensure food safety.</li></ul>