On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 21:15:50 +0000, BigWallop wrote:


"Jim Thompson" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 21:05:49 GMT, "BigWallop"
wrote:

snipped

Wouldn't it be so much simpler to put the food in air-tight bags, then
micro-wave them? Micro-waves will heat the food to the point of killing
the
germans (sorry, germs), then the air-tight bag will stop anything else
getting in to the food. Sterile enough or what?


Suppose I want a fresh, uncooked, tomato?

Then don't micro-wave it for so long. Most people here are talking about
"irradiating" the food, when all this really means, in the real world
anyway, is running it through a micro-wave oven for a minute or two. The
only thing that really gets "irradiated" to sterilise it, is fruit fly
larvae. But that a different type of sterilisation all together. :-)

AIUI, microwaves don't kill small organisms directly. If you want to
sterilize something in a microwave oven, I think you will have to do it by
heating it to the boiling point.

When people talk about irradiating food, I believe they are talking about
high-energy gamma radiation, not microwaves.

--Mac