How is a sterilization dose measured in the e-beam irradiation process?

Are you ready for the shocking truth? Truth is, we can’t actually guarantee sterility of any products we “sterilize.”

Don’t panic just yet though! We are fully capable of certifying the dose the product received—the dose that you and your microbiological lab determined was needed to qualify your product as sterile.

So how do we actually measure dose?

This is a packaged dosimeter:

Dosimeters are made from thin polymer film containing a radiation sensitive dye. A color change occurs when the film is exposed to radiation,with the colors getting darker as the dose gets higher.

The exposure of the film is measured by determining the amount of light that is absorbed at a specific wavelength. The film is calibrated by exposing samples side-by-side with transfer dosimeters from a national standards organization, such as NIST or Phoenix National Laboratory, and developing calibration curves. These results enable us to translate the colored film into a precisely measured dose, and to certify that your product received the proper dose to be considered sterile.