Military Hygiene and Hygiene in Emergency Situations - K.O. Pashka 2005

Fundamentals of organizing and conducting sanitary surveillance and medical control of food supply for military personnel and the civilian population in field conditions
Methods of decontamination, degassing, and disinfection of foodstuffs and packaging

Transporting food in hermetically sealed containers or specialized vehicles with sealed bodies provides the most reliable protection against radioactive (RA), toxic (CW), and biological (BW) agents. Food is less protected when carried in trucks with canvas tarps. Transporting food in open truck beds under the threat of such agents is strictly prohibited. Food contaminated with RA and CW agents or infected with BW agents is unfit for consumption and must undergo appropriate decontamination, degasification, disinfection, or disposal.

It is much easier to protect food from contamination or infection than to carry out its subsequent specialized Processing, which is quite complex. Special food processing can only be performed by trained specialists using a full range of equipment. Therefore, as a rule, military units only process food that is sealed in hermetic containers.

Decontamination of food stored in hermetic containers is carried out by cleaning the protective grease from the surface and washing it with Water.

Grains, pasta, sugar, and other bulk foods packed in double or multiple bags should be brushed free of dust (preferably using a vacuum cleaner), after which the outer bags are removed and the inner ones undergo radiological monitoring. If necessary, the contents are transferred to clean containers.

Fish, meat, and sausages are washed with plenty of cold water. If necessary, fish is scaled, the top layer of meat up to 0.5 cm thick is trimmed off, and the sausage casing is removed before a final rinse with water. In some cases, after removing the bones, meat can be boiled thoroughly 2–3 times; this transfers more than 50% of the RA into the broth, which must be discarded after each boil.

Potatoes, beets, cabbage, and other fruits and vegetables are decontaminated by washing with water. It is advisable to remove the outer layers of cabbage and onions contaminated with RA. After peeling, the vegetables are rinsed again with cold water.

Hard fats, cheeses, butter, and bread are decontaminated by removing the contaminated top layer up to 1 cm thick using a knife or thin wire, applying a slicing motion rather than a sawing one.

In any case, after decontamination, food must be re-inspected for radioactive contamination to decide whether it requires further decontamination, storage until natural decay renders it safe, or destruction. Mixing clean food with RA-contaminated food to achieve acceptable contamination levels is strictly prohibited.

Food fully contaminated with liquid-drop CW agents is generally not decontaminated but destroyed. Partially contaminated food is decontaminated by removing the packaging and the adjacent layers of food.

If food products are contaminated with CW vapors, they are aired, washed, stripped of their outer layers if necessary, and subjected to special culinary processing. For example, meat is boiled for 3–4 hours, draining the water after the first boil and replacing it with clean water; the same Procedure applies to fish, which is boiled for up to 2 hours after scaling.

Vegetables are washed, aired, stripped of a surface layer up to 3 mm thick, and boiled. Grains, pasta, and sugar are aired by spreading them in a thin layer over a surface. Then, the grains are washed several times and boiled; pasta is boiled in a large amount of water (1 kg of product per 10 L of water) for 10 minutes, drained, and boiled once more in the same volume of clean water. Sugar is also boiled in water (at a ratio of 1 kg to 4 L of water) for about 2 hours. Canned goods in metal and Glass containers are wiped with a degassing solution, washed with clean water, and dried. Bread, butter, and hard cheeses are degassed by trimming away the outer layers to a depth of 2–5 cm. They should also be thermally processed, such as rendering butter or toasting bread.

Food is disinfected by wiping or spraying the packaging with a disinfectant solution, holding it for the prescribed exposure time, and then airing it for 2 hours.

Food packaged in hermetic metal containers (canned goods, etc.) is boiled for up to 30 minutes if contaminated with non-spore-forming microorganisms, and up to 1 hour for spore-forming ones. Canned goods in hermetically sealed glass containers are immersed in a disinfectant solution for up to 30 minutes (the concentration depends on whether the contamination involves spore-forming or non-spore-forming microorganisms). After 2 hours, the jars are washed with clean water.

Meat is boiled for at least 2 hours from the moment the water starts boiling; if 1% acetic acid is added to the water, the time is reduced to 1 hour.

Hard fats are rendered by boiling for 1 hour.

Bread is sliced and dried into rusks at a Temperature not lower than 120 °C.

Potatoes and fresh vegetables are immersed in a chlorine solution for at least 40 minutes and then washed in water.

Dried fruits are boiled in water for about 1 hour, after which they are used to make jams, fruit butters, etc.