Radioactivity Content and Dosimetric Assessment in Bovine Meat from the Calabria Region, Southern Italy

Abstract

In this article, the assessment of the radioactivity content in bovine meat from the Calabria region, Southern Italy, was performed. For this purpose, High Purity Germanium (HPGe) gamma spectrometry measurements were carried out in order to investigate any possible radioactive contamination by natural (40K) and anthropogenic (137Cs) radionuclides. Experimental mean values were found to be in the range from (78.9 ± 10.5) Bq kg−1 to (88.2 ± 12.5) Bq kg−1 for 40K and lower than the minimum detectable activity (MDA) in all cases for 137Cs, respectively. Moreover, any possible radiological health risk was also estimated, by calculating the total annual effective dose due to the ingestion of bovine meat by adult members of the population and by comparing it with the total natural radioactivity value (external + internal) for humans. Obtained values are in the range from 10.3 µSv y−1 to 11.5 µSv y−1, several orders of magnitude lower than the value of the total exposure to natural radioactivity for human beings, i.e., 2.4 mSv y−1. It is worth noting that the used approach could be used, in principle, for the evaluation of the radiological risk due to the presence of radionuclides in a large variety of food samples of particular interest, and thus it can constitute a guideline for investigations focused on the monitoring of food quality.