Product Quality Control and Shipping Procedures for Sterile Mass-Reared Tephritid Fruit Flies

There are different reasons for performing dosimetry depending on the process. For example, there are ‘regulated processes’ such as food irradiation and sterilisation of health care products, where it is a legal requirement to perform dosimetry. In other cases, like plastic-insulation modification in electrical wires, the product quality and the economy of the process seem to be the driving force. In some other cases, it helps to scale up a process from the research level to the industrial level. Nearly all of these requirements apply to the case of Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) projects. Species targeted by SIT programmes are typically major pests affecting agriculture or human health, so the assurance that insects have been properly irradiated is of crucial importance to guaranty the efficiency of the SIT. This is achieved through standardized dosimetry, the key elements of which are accurate and reliable dose measurements. The principal role of dosimetry is in establishing the required minimum dose and also ensuring that correct dose is delivered to each insect container.