Estimation of annual effective dose due to ingestion of radioactive elements in Sri Lankan common meal plans.

Dietary ingestion of radionuclides by human may lead to many hazardous effects such as cancers. No studies have been conducted to estimate the levels of radioactivity dosage received from Sri Lankan homemade foods. In order to find out the levels of radionuclides in Sri Lankan cooked foods, meal plans (n = 11) that are most commonly consumed were analyzed for the activity concentrations of the radioisotopes Ra, Pb, Th, Cs, and K by means of gamma spectroscopy. K had the highest activity concentration present in the meal plans with a range of 80.56 ± 17.53 to 143.41 ± 24.6 Bq kg, and the radionuclides Ra, Pb, Cs, and Th were not detected in any of the analyzed meal plans. The annual intake of food was determined on the basis of their average annual consumption. The effective dose to an average adult who consumes the meal plans ranged from 0.030 to 0.051 mSv year. However, the effective dose and activity concentrations of radionuclides were lower than the guideline limit specified by United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and other countries. Hence, the consumption of cooked meal plans in Sri Lanka is safe in terms of radioactivity for the five radionuclides investigated in this study.