A practical and transferable methodology for dose estimation in irradiated spices, based on thermoluminescence dosimetry.

The thermoluminescence technique is recommended by the European Committee for Standardization for the detection of irradiated food containing silicates as contaminants. In this work, the applicability of the thermoluminescence technique as a quantitative method to assess the original dose in irradiated oregano was studied; the additive-dose method was used, with reirradiation doses up to 600 Gy. The proposed new procedure allows to clearly discriminate irradiated from unirradiated samples, even after one year storage, and it gives an acceptable estimation of the original dose; the overall modified procedure requires only one day to be completed.