by Felicia Hodges
Most people shudder when word of another E.coli or Salmonella contamination hits the news. Especially since many of the outbreaks involve foods we eat regularly, diseases caused by what we ingest can be very frightening.
Irradiation – a process of bombarding food with high-energy beams to kill bacteria and other pathogens – is being touted as a way to rid our food of germs that can make us sick. In February of 2002, the US Food and Drug Administration passed final approval for irradiating red meat, as well as pork, poultry, eggs, vegetables, spices and some fruit. The FDA has since approved the irradiation of shellfish, crustaceans, lettuce and spinach, seeds for sprouting (like for alfalfa) and spices and seasonings.
According to Sherri Majid of MSD Nordion – a manufacturer of irradiation facilities – irradiation kills E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter, bacteria which are responsible for three major causes of food-borne illnesses. It can extend the shelf life of produce, enabling consumers to keep foods like strawberries, lettuce and carrots longer because it prevents sprouting, de-activates mold and kills spoilage bacteria. In effect, Majid says, it gives manufacturers and processors an additional tool to help make sure the foods we eat don't have microorganisms in them that will make us ill.
But could tossing a bunch of radioactive particles at food you feed your family actually create more problems than it solves?
The Fine Print
According to Danila Oder, Food Irradiation Coordinator with the Organic Consumer Association, a Minnesota-based, non-profit public interest group that focuses on promoting the views and interests of organic consumers, a lot of information on what happens once food is irradiated is not known and much of what is known is not all that good.
“Irradiation ionizes food which creates free radicals,” Oder says – the very same free radicals we are told to take anti-oxidant vitamins to rid the body of because they may harm body tissue. Free radicals often re-combine in the food and create new compounds like benzene or formaldehyde, she adds. In addition, some methods of cooking food also create free radicals, so, if you grill an irradiated beefsteak, you could be actually loading up on chemicals you should be trying to help your body expel.
“Irradiated meat is a very different product from cooked meat,” says Dr. Samuel S. Epstein, emeritus professor of environmental medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health. Citing Army analyses conducted in 1977, he adds that levels of benzene in irradiated beef were around 10 times higher than cooked beef.
Irradiation may also break down the vitamins, minerals and enzymes in foods, particularly with vitamins A, C, E and B complexes. Cooking also increases the vitamin loss, which, in effect, can have your family eating foods with much less nutritional value than you might have thought.
Oddly enough, irradiation may not even get rid of all the bad stuff. Viruses and pryons (organisms that cause things like ”Mad Cow” Disease) are not even affected by irradiation. Neither are all bacteria.
“The ones that live become irradiation resistant,” Oder says.
Old Technology
Irradiation is not new. The technology behind it first appeared in the early 1900s after the discovery of x-rays. Commercially promoted in the 1950s by the Department of Energy, the first approval for use on mass-produced food came in the 1960s as bacon was given the irradiation green light. The approval was later rescinded when it was discovered that the high fat in the food turned rancid quickly after it was zapped.
In addition to x-ray irradiation, nuclear/gamma radiation and high-energy electron beams are also used to irradiate foods. Because of how the products are processed, the meat and poultry industries fought hard for irradiation, with some even lobbying to change federal regulations and asking for changes in the things like allowable fecal content, arguing that the germs present will be killed during irradiation anyway.
“The public doesn’t know too much about [this] because it is occurring in the regulatory arena, not the legislative arena so the newspapers are not covering it,” Oder adds.
Required Labeling
In this country, only irradiated whole packaged foods are required to have a label (known internationally as the Radura symbol). In other words, if a company that produces ground beef uses irradiation, it is only required that the box the individual packages are shipped in have a symbol. The problem comes when your local grocer or burger joint separates the packages and places them in the meat section or tosses them on the grill. And according to the Center for Disease Control, and Prevention (CDC) the Radura symbol does not have to appear on a food if a minor ingredient of the food has been irradiated, as the FDA does not require that individual ingredients in multi-ingredient foods (like spices) be labeled.
Oder says that the details not spelled out on the label should also be cause for consumer concern.
“According to the FDA, if a fruit or vegetable has been irradiated with up to 1 kilogram, which is the max [for a fruit or veggie], it can still be called fresh,” she says.
Long-Term Effects
Few if any studies regarding long-term effects of eating irradiated food have been conducted. Oder says she knows of only one; it lasted only 15 weeks on healthy adults.
“You hear about 40 years of research and that the products will not cause any harm, but they said that about DDT, Thalidomide, Fen-Phen, saccharin and aspartame,” she adds.
Via their website, the FDA also warns that it is important to remember that irradiation should not replace for proper food handling practices by producers, processors and consumers, as they still need to be stored, handled and cooked in the same way as non-irradiated foods because they could still become contaminated with disease-causing organisms after irradiation.
Oder also says that because of the handling of meat after it leaves the slaughterhouse also contributes to food borne illnesses, food eaten at a fast food restaurant is “probably better [if] it is irradiated.” But, she warns, consumer should still know whether or not the food they chose to eat has been irradiated so they can make the choice, not have it thrust upon them without their consent.
“If you want to eat irradiated food, you are virtually giving the meat industry permission to contaminate. You are allowing them to decide how much contamination you should eat,” she says. “It is a slippery slope.”
For more information on food irradiation, log onto the websites of the FDA, or the EPA or read this article from the CDC.
Sidebar: Fast Facts on Food Irradiation
The Radura Symbol The CDC says that as many as 5,000 people a year die because of diseases related to food-borne contamination, although only 1,800 are known to be bacterial in origin.
- Some foods, like dairy products, baked goods and bulky items like turkeys cannot be irradiated because of their composition or size. A few fruits and vegetables experience texture and flavor changes after being irradiated.
- According to a paper done by Dr. Samuel S. Epstein and Wenonah Hauter, a range of independent studies conducted before 1986 identified carcinogenic properties in irradiated food and “confirmed evidence of genetic toxicity in tests on irradiated food.”
Felicia Hodges is the editor of Tri-County Woman Magazine.
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