Summary
After the Chernobyl accident in April 1986, Mexico imported from one European country a shipment of 28,000 tons of milk powder contaminated with the fission product 137Cs. Since then, the local authorities of Public Health have established as a compulsory condition to obtain through gamma-spectroscopy a certificate of no radioactive contamination either to imported or exported foodstuffs. But at the same time, the absence of long-lived, gamma-emitters fission products is certified, it is also possible to find the concentration of the important trace element K in foodstuffs, by the peak of 1461 keV from 40K, invariably present in the gamma-spectra. Taking advantage of the fact that it does not require any previous manipulation of the sample, this paper describes the general procedure in milk powder or any other foodstuff.
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Navarrete, J., Campos, J., Martínez, T. et al. Determination of potassium traces in foodstuffs by natural 40K radiation. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 265, 133–135 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-005-0797-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-005-0797-3