Recent developments in the application of nuclear technology in agro-food quality and safety control in China

Having effective control on quality and safety of Chinese agro-food is of global significance due to the massive volume of production and export. Because of the technical advantages, as well as advocation of peaceful use of such technique by international community, nuclear techniques have been widely applied in China for food control purpose. This paper reviewed the recent developments of nuclear technique applications for food traceability (stable isotope analysis on beef, wheat, lamb, tea) and authentication (stable isotope analysis on organic food, apicultural products, camellia oil, orange juice), food contaminant analysis (radio-immunoassay and stable-isotope dilution for drug residues and microbial toxins) and food quality assurance (gamma ray and electron beam irradiation) in China, specifically with an intense discussion upon the first application as the authors believe it will be the most promising nuclear based technique for food quality and safety control. In conclusion, current situation of application was outlined and defects of discussed technologies were identified for future development.