OCA Debates Food Irradiation Proponents

Connecticut Post (Bridgeport, CT)
April 29, 2004
The Case for Food Irradiation

WEDNESDAY, April 28 [HealthDayNews] -- Irradiating food is safe and
effective, so why isn't the United States doing it more often?

That's the message of both an article and a perspective piece that appear in
the April 29 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The articles make
a plea to physicians and health-care providers to push for more irradiation
of foods to kill potentially deadly germs.

According to the article, an estimated 76 million cases of food-borne
illness, resulting in more than 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths,
occur every year in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention estimates that if 50 percent of food were irradiated, there
would be 900,000 fewer cases of food-borne illnesses annually and 352 fewer
deaths.

The United States produces 8 billion pounds of ground beef every year, 25.6
million of which -- 0.32 percent -- is contaminated with the E. coli
bacterium.

At the present time in the United States, 10 percent of herbs and spices and
less than 0.002 percent of fruits, vegetables, meats and poultry are
irradiated. Astronauts, however, have been eating irradiated steak since
1960, the perspective author pointed out.

"Basically, this is a lifesaving technology that is readily available today
and, unfortunately, it is being used only in a very sparing way," said
article co-author Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for
Infectious Disease, Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota in
Minneapolis. "This is akin to what we saw in the 1920s and 1930s with milk
pasteurization. Today we wouldn't think of providing milk without
pasteurizing it."

Osterholm reported he has received financial support from SureBeam, an
irradiator, and other organizations.

But opponents argue that if better safety measures were implemented earlier
in the food-production cycle, especially for meat, there would be no need
for irradiation.

"If we had a system comparable to that of northern Europe with strict
regulation and zero tolerance for contaminants, we wouldn't be having the
problem in the first place," said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the
Organic Consumers Association. "Let's follow that line of thinking rather
than just assume we've got a horrible situation getting worse that we can
only solve with a problematic technology."

Irradiation involves using high-energy radiation either from gamma rays,
X-rays or electron beams to rid foods of most of their pathogens. The
process does not eliminate the need for safe handling of food, but it does
minimize the chances that germs such as E. coli will make it onto your
dinner table. According to the article, food sterilization by irradiation
requires a dose of radiation about 10 to 30 times the dose needed for
pasteurization.

Red meat, poultry, pork, fruits and vegetables, aromatic spices, seeds,
herbs and seasonings, enzyme preparations, eggs and wheat are all approved
for irradiation.

Osterholm estimated the cost to the consumer of irradiating large quantities
of food to be less than 5 cents a pound for meat or poultry. He also pointed
out the process is not harmful and does not destroy nutritional quality,
which some, including the Organic Consumers Association, have argued.

"Most scientists are agreed that it is safe," added Donald W. Thayer, author
of the accompanying perspective article and a retired microbiologist from
the U.S. Department of Agriculture's [USDA] Agricultural Research Service
who now works as a consultant.

"One could argue that slaughterhouses could be cleaned up more and I won't
argue with that," Thayer added. "But most [slaughterhouses] work at a very
good level of sanitation, and simply facing the facts of life, some
contamination may occur and the radiation then turns out to be a very good
means of helping ensure that pathogens don't reach the consumer. Would it be
ideal if we didn't have to do anything? Yes. To say that organic-grown
animals are the only way to go is a little bit ridiculous."

Irradiation does seem to be catching on, albeit in small ways. The USDA now
offers irradiated ground beef for school lunches to about 27 million
children, the article stated. And the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may
authorize irradiation of cold cuts and processed meats, the perspective
piece stated.

"The issue is that this is no longer a debate," Osterholm said. "There's no
need at this point for balance on this issue any more than on the flat earth
society. There is an extensive body of information with every major
scientific and medical group on board that this is a safe and effective
process. The same arguments were used in terms of milk pasteurization almost
80 years ago. And the bottom line is a lot of people died from drinking
unpasteurized milk and today we consider it very wholesome and nutritious."

More information

Learn more about irradiation at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Find an opposing
viewpoint at the Organic Consumers Association.