kGy:
kilogray: a unit of irradiation administered to a drug or raw material from a cobalt-60 or e-beam reactor for the purpose of lowering bioburden or producing sterility.
The colors are stabilized to 40 kGy (
kilogray) of gamma and electron beam sterilization.
Craven noted she is seeing an increased number of sensitive products that can't handle the traditional higher doses associated with radiation sterilization in the 25-50
kilogray range.
"One of our customers had a drug-coated stent, and the drug could only get 30
kilogray [kGy]," recalled Larry Nichols, chief operating officer of Nutek Corporation, an irradiation sterilizer based in Hayward, Calif.
Today, the amount a device is exposed to gamma irradiation is expressed in the international standard of
KiloGray (KGy).
Individual bacterial species--three isolate mixtures--were inoculated onto the surface of each product and irradiated in a self-contained irradiator at 0.095
kilogray (kGy) per min, at 4 C in an aerobic environment.
At the same time, the Joint Expert Committee on Food Irradiation (JECFI), which represents most countries, concluded that all foods irradiated with 10
kilogray (kGy) or less, the maximum level for food pasteurization, was not toxic and would not affect the nutrients.
In the first installment of this series, headlined "Food Fight," (NCR, May 24), the box at the bottom of Page 15, "Regulating food irradiation," did not explain that "
kiloGray" is a measure of ionizing radiation, the kind of x-rays approved by the U.S.
The FDA has been asked to allow an increase in irradiation levels from 1
kilogray to 4
kilograys to kill pathogens.
Published in the July 2000 issue of the Journal of Food Protection, Rajkowski's research showed that a 2
kiloGray level of irradiation achieves a 100,000-fold, reduction in pathogens, the level recommended by the Food and Drug Administration.