## 3 Results and Discussion
### The Annual Effective Dose for Early Childhood Food Ingestion  
The dose estimation due to the ingestion of radionuclides through food consumption was performed for infants up to two years old. In order to evaluate the radiological health risks for early children, we estimated the annual effective dose due to the ingestion, \(D_{\text{{ing}}}\). Table 3 reports the obtained results, which take into account the annual average consumption of _homogenized fruit_ (three 80 g jars per day), _homogenized meat_ (one 80 g jar per day), _childhood biscuits_ (four per day) and _baby pasta_ (about 100 g per day), per infant in Italy [39; 40].  
The ingestion dose for the selected age categories, due to the intake of \({}^{40}\)K, thus ranges from 0.02 mSv y\({}^{-1}\) (for G3) to 0.27 mSv y\({}^{-1}\) (for G2) for the age category of 0-1 year old, and from 0.01 mSv y\({}^{-1}\) (for G3) to 0.22 mSv y\({}^{-1}\) (for G2) for the age category of 1-2 years old, respectively. Noteworthily, the obtained values were found to be always lower than the ICRP recommended limit of 1 mSv y\({}^{-1}\) for all ages [16]. Moreover, such dose values account for 0.8-11.2% (age category of 0-1 year old) and 0.4-9.1% (age category of 1-2 years old) of the average annual effective dose to the world population (2.4 mSv y\({}^{-1}\)) [41].  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Specific Activity**} \\ \cline{2-3}
**Group ID** & **40**K** & **137**Cs** \\  & **(Bq kg\({}^{-1}\))** & **(Bq kg\({}^{-1}\))** \\ \hline  & 111 \(\pm\) 13 & \textless{}0.11 \\  & 95 \(\pm\) 11 & \textless{}0.12 \\ G1 & 68 \(\pm\) 9 & \textless{}0.10 \\  & 160 \(\pm\) 19 & \textless{}0.09 \\  & 51 \(\pm\) 6 & \textless{}0.11 \\ _Mean value_ & 97 \(\pm\) 12 & \textless{}0.11 \\  & 171 \(\pm\) 19 & \textless{}0.09 \\  & 202 \(\pm\) 23 & \textless{}0.11 \\ G2 & 182 \(\pm\) 19 & \textless{}0.12 \\  & 188 \(\pm\) 20 & \textless{}0.08 \\  & 142 \(\pm\)16 & \textless{}0.13 \\ _Mean value_ & 177 \(\pm\) 19 & \textless{}0.10 \\  & 120 \(\pm\) 14 & \textless{}0.11 \\  & 72 \(\pm\) 9 & \textless{}0.12 \\ G3 & 130 \(\pm\) 14 & \textless{}0.10 \\  & 75 \(\pm\) 9 & \textless{}0.13 \\  & 55 \(\pm\) 7 & \textless{}0.09 \\ _Mean value_ & 90 \(\pm\) 11 & \textless{}0.11 \\  & 106 \(\pm\) 12 & \textless{}0.19 \\  & 83 \(\pm\) 9 & \textless{}0.18 \\ G4 & 96 \(\pm\) 11 & \textless{}0.13 \\  & 79 \(\pm\) 9 & \textless{}0.14 \\  & 78 \(\pm\) 9 & \textless{}0.17 \\ _Mean value_ & 88 \(\pm\) 7 & \textless{}0.10 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 2: Massic activities (Bq kg\({}^{-1}\)) of \({}^{40}\)K and \({}^{137}\)Cs in the analyzed early childhood food samples.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Effective Dose for Ingestion, D\({}_{\text{{ing}}}\) (mSv y\({}^{-1}\))**} \\ \hline
**Group ID** & **0-1 Year Old** & **1-2 Years Old** \\ \hline G1 & 0.23 & 0.19 \\ G2 & 0.27 & 0.22 \\ G3 & 0.02 & 0.01 \\ G4 & 0.17 & 0.13 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 3: The annual effective dose for early childhood food ingestion.  
These results show the importance of determining the radioactivity level in early childhood foods in order to ensure their safety and suitability, considering that they are typically consumed during a vulnerable period of human life.