2.2. Irradiation and storage
Packaged beans were subjected to various irradiation doses up to
2.5 kGy in a cobalt-60 irradiator (GC-5000, BRIT, Vashi, India) having
activity of 8.6 kCi and dose rate of 6.5 kGy h1. Irradiator was calibrated
using a Fricke dosimeter before the start of experiment and
dose uniformity ratio (Dmax/Dmin)was found to be 1.2. The optimum
storage temperature for French beans has earlier been reported to be
10 C (Proulx, Yagiz, Cecilia, Nunes, & Emond, 2010). Hence irradiated
samples were stored at this temperature. Radiation dose and
storage time was chosen according to experimental design.