Delay times between harvesting or collection of food products and consumption for use in radiological assessments

From a radiological protection point of view, the inclusion of delay times when carrying out assessments of dose from consumption of foods should be considered. A review of delay times has been carried out to update a report published in 1983, to take account of changes and modernisations in industrial food processes, together with changes in diet and popularity of different foods in the United Kingdom. The new review considered more foods and data for existing foods have been reconsidered to check whether manufacturing processes or procedures have changed the shelf-life of any products. For some foods there have been changes made to the recommended delay times because of changes in manufacture or handling of the fresh foodstuff. A discussion is also included on the appropriate use of delay times in dose assessments.