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Irradiation Debate Flares Amid Food Poisoning Outbreaks

February 25, 2007

Irradiation • Feds Approve Irradiation of Spinach, Lettuce • FDA Proposes Relaxing Irradiation Labeling • Irradiation Debate Flares Amid Food Poisoning Outbreaks • Study: Irradiation Could Reduce Food-Borne Illness • Irradiated Food Saves Lives, Study Finds • USDA Approves Expanded Irradiation of Meat, Poultry --- • More about Food Safety ...

Irradiation of food would save hundreds, maybe thousands, of lives annually by reducing the incidence of Salmonella, E. coli and other toxins food. Or would it?

A consumer group says irradiation is "expensive, ineffective, and impractical" technology for addressing food safety and claims it could harm the texture, taste and nutritional value of food.

Who's right?

Consumer reporter John F. Stossel, co-anchor of the ABC News show "20/20" is promoting a new book, "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity," in which he skewers anti-irradiation activists for blocking widespread adoption of technology that most food scientists believe could have stopped some or all of the latest food poisoning episodes that have shaken Americans' confidence in their food supply.

"The irradiation process would give consumers wonderful new options: strawberries that stay fresh three weeks, and chicken without the harmful levels of salmonella that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says kill six hundred Americans every year, and cause countless cases of food poisoning," says Stossel.

Agreeing with Stossel is Dennis G. Maki, M.D., author of a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Irradiation of high-risk foods after processing could greatly reduce the incidence of all bacterial foodborne disease and save hundreds of lives each year, Maki argues.

"Irradiation kills or markedly reduces counts of food pathogens without impairing the nutritional value of the food or making it toxic, carcinogenic, or radioactive," according to Maki, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin.

Irradiation of food is already approved in the United States for most perishable foods and has been endorsed by the World Health Organization, CDC, FDA, USDA, American Medical Association, and European Commission Scientific Committee on Food.

"A number of food products are already commonly irradiated, with no evidence of harmful effects, and for decades, we have sterilized hundreds of millions of implanted medical devices through irradiation each year," Maki wrote.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has estimated that irradiation of high-risk foods could prevent up to a million cases of bacterial foodborne disease that result in the hospitalization of more than 50,000 persons and kill many hundreds each year in North America.

Irradiation increases the shelf life of foods, while decreasing losses resulting from spoilage and pests; irradiation also controls pathogens and parasites, and inhibits the sprouting of vegetables, another to an earlier New England Journal of Medicine article.

Irradiation is cheap, costing consumers less than five cents per pound for meat or poultry, when done on large volumes of food products.

Not the Answer

But Food & Water Watch, a Washington-based organization, contends that irradiation is not the answer to food safety problems.

"That 5,000 people in the United States die every year from foodborne illnesses is tragic," said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. "Food producers need to address the source of the problem -- too fast processing lines and dirty conditions at plants -- not promote an expensive, impractical and ineffective technology like irradiation."

Irradiation does not kill all the bacteria in food and may undermine other food safety efforts by masking filthy conditions and encouraging improper handling, Hauter said.

She said irradiation can mask filthy conditions in today's mega-sized livestock slaughterhouses and food processing plants. Slaughterhouses process up to 400 cows per hour or 200 birds per minute, posing an enormous sanitation challenge where E. coli, Salmonella and other potentially deadly food-borne pathogens can be spread through feces, urine and pus.

"Americans do not want to eat feces and pus even if it has been irradiated," Hauter said. "Instead of encouraging expensive treatments like irradiation, USDA should give meat inspectors the tools to test products at the plant and ensure that contaminated meat never reaches restaurants or supermarket shelves."

Food & Water Watch also argues that irradiating the U.S. food supply would be extraordinarily expensive, requiring about 80 multimillion dollar irradiation facilities.

Although the U.S. Food & Drug Administration has approved irradiation of many foods, Food & Water Watch claims the supporting data were "paltry and flawed."

Weighing in to support irradiation is the American Council on Science and Health, which yesterday said irradiation "could greatly reduce illness from foodborne pathogens and make our already safe food supply even safer."

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