A preliminary study on determination of radioactivity levels and estimation of the annual effective dose in dried fruits consumed in Albania

Abstract

Abstract This work aimed to support Albania’s food safety monitoring regime. In this context, the natural and artificial radioactivity was measured in 20 samples of dried fruits collected randomly in different markets of Tirana. The activity concentration of 40K, 226Ra, 232Th and 137Cs was determined by using the high-purity germanium detector. The maximum values of activity concentration in dried fruits were calculated as 517 ± 22 Bq kg−1 for 40K, 11.10 ± 0.93 Bq kg−1 for 226Ra, 4.38 ± 0.26 Bq kg−1 for 232Th and 0.83 ± 0.14 Bq kg−1 for 137Cs. The average values of activity concentration of 40K and 226Ra were 269and 6.05 Bq kg−1 and the average effective dose to individuals from the intake of the dried fruits was 44 μSv y−1. All average values in this study were lower than recommended values by reports United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effect of Atomic Radiation, World Health Organization and International Commission on Radiological Protection for all age groups. Therefore, all dried fruit samples in this study are safe for consumption with acceptable radiological risk and none of them pose any significant radiological impact. The obtained data in this paper and information for levels of radioactivity and ingestion absorbed dose from dried fruits can be used to be the basic data for future comparative analysis of the other studies.