An Intervention Study Using Irradiated Ethnic Ready to Eat Foods in Immunocompromised Patients

Food poisoning derived from contaminated foods can have serious health consequences, particularly for immuno-compromised patients as well as specific target groups where fresh food supply might be limited such as the army, people who live in remote areas and those exposed to natural disasters. Food processing through ionizing radiation as a food safety measure can be applied to the targeted foods either at a medium or high radiation dose, either alone or in combination with other techniques. Radiation sterilization of ethnic ready to eat foods has been considered as safe. Products which have high sensory qualities, hygienic and nutritionally sound may play a major role in accelerating recovery process through maintaining the dietary diversity of such population groups. In this study, the ethnic safe ready to eat (RTE) foods prepared were those from animal origins, i.e., fish, red meat and poultry meat, respectively while the formula, recipe and design product type was maintained based on WHO Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for immuno-compromised patients. Irradiation was carried out at a 60Co irradiation facility and the process was maintained under cryogenic condition to protect the essential dietary nutrients against free radical attack. To reduce the undesirable oxidative changes in the food matrix containing fats, the processing was also done on non transparency packaged frozen products after evacuation to eliminate atmospheric oxygen. Irradiated food samples were then stored at room temperature (28-30°C). The foods were administered to immunocompromised residents of the National Narcotic Board (NNB) in Bogor over a 21 day period. The 45 participants were randomly allocated into 3 groups with n = 15 per group. Group I (control) consumed regular foods as prepared by NNB, group II consumed unirradiated ready to eat foods and group III consumed radiation sterilization ready to eat foods namely fish pepes, rendang beef, semur and processed chicken. Blood samples were taken from all participants, both pre and post intervention and tested for albumin and lymphocyte proliferation, while BMI was also assessed. Radiation sterilization ready to eat foods were rated positively in sensory evaluation tests. No difference in effects of the intervention on Body Mass Index (BMI) measurements was found, but there was some indication that the intervention using irradiated RTE foods increased albumin levels and maintained lymphocyte count. Data were analyzed and calculated statistically using software and tested for its significance.