Pilot schools say no to irradiated beef; Three Minnesota districts took part in the test program; all declined to order the product. Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) December 29, 2003 by Allie Shah Minnesota's groundbreaking and controversial test run to educate people about possible use of irradiated beef in school lunches is over, and none of the participating school districts chose to order the meat.      The project organizers are calling it a success, saying they now have rich data to guide development of an educational program about irradiated beef and school lunches.      The findings appeared in a final report on the project prepared by the Minnesota Department of Education, which developed the program using a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).      At the program's outset, a USDA spokeswoman said that its success would be seen by whether any of the participating schools buy irradiated meat.      A change in federal law allows beef bought by the USDA for the national school lunch program to be irradiated. School districts may begin ordering the meat in January. Last year, three Minnesota districts _ Sauk Rapids-Rice, Willmar and Spring Lake Park _ agreed to take part in the pilot program to learn more about food irradiation, which zaps food briefly with radiation to destroy disease-causing organisms such as E. coli bacteria. The process doesn't make food radioactive.      While most major medical organizations support the decades-old technology, some prominent consumer advocacy groups such as Public Citizen strongly oppose it. They cite concerns about possible long-term effects.      That debate, along with allegations that Minnesota's education program was nothing more than a marketing tool for corporate interests, quickly surfaced. Parents, teachers and school staff in the three districts were first surveyed about their attitudes and knowledge about food safety and irradiation and then presented with fliers and other materials created to educate them about the subject.      After receiving some of the information, the Sauk Rapids-Rice district pulled out of the program. Superintendent Greg Vandal explained later that district leaders were uncomfortable with the expectation that they would have to take a stand on irradiation instead of just being part of a survey. In Spring Lake Park, parents concerned about the district's involvement in the project spoke at a school board meeting and formed a group called Healthy Kids Minnesota.      Meanwhile, Public Citizen issued a report of its own last summer, blasting the program for what it called biased information that touted the benefits of irradiation to increase food safety without giving due weight to the possible downside. Minnesota Department of Education officials in their final report said their efforts to educate were effective because 90 percent of survey respondents read some or all of the material presented, and found it informative and easy to read. They also said the sources used were credible.      But acknowledging the continuing debate over irradiation, the report stated: "Because the issue remained controversial, no local school districts showed a willingness to purchase the product at this time."