what property of gmma rays makes themsuitable for sterilising food?

Answer 1

Their ionising property means that a high dose will kill living cells by damaging the DNA. Bacteria are living cells.

Answer 2

Gamma radiation will kill most bacteria, moulds, fungi & viruses, although some particular strains are highly radiation resistant. They act by causing an excessive number of breaks in the DNA of the cell/virus, such that it is unable to repair. They can both kill pathogenic (disease causing) and spoilage bacteria, meaning that as well as making food safe to eat it will also extend its shelf life, acting as a preservative. However, high doses of gamma radiation can produce unwanted chemical effects - for instance they can breakdown some vitamins in food and can also produce unpleasant odours or flavours from radiation induced breakdown of the components of the food.

Answer 3

gamma rays are capable of damaging living cells with ease due to the sheer amount of energy that they contain ( being from the energy intensive end of the radio spectrum). the ionising properties of these otherwise lethal rays allows it to warp and manipulate dna, which are the basic building blocks of life. as bacteria / bacterium replicate and spread by copying their DNA, upon the destruction of this Dna string you basically prevent the bacteria from being able to reproduce, or even kill it off completely. it also works extremely well for viruses, because all viruses are basically nothing more than DNA, covered in a single layer of protein, they are equally susceptible to gamma radiation as bacteria, whereas viruses can be extremely resistant to other forms of sterilisation.

the only danger with gamma rays is that they are very energy intensive, requiring small blasts of radiation rather than continued long bursts, however due to the nature of the waves, its perfectly safe to zap away all the bacteria and viruses on food with bursts of radiation, whilst leaving the food unharmed.

Answer 4

All of the above..but the other good reason is that being so penetrating, gamma radiation can sterilise food, medical instruments etc even in sealed packaging, preventing further, later contamination