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11/04/97- Updated 01:48 AM ET
Food safety officials warming to radiation
Food safety experts are warming to an idea once considered off limits in a society leery of anything nuclear: the irradiation of foods to kill bacteria, parasites and other disease-causing microorganisms.
"The time has come," says Edward S. Josephson of the University of Rhode Island, co-chair of a task force on irradiation convened last year by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology. Recent outbreaks of illness linked to dangerous strains of E. coli in meat, lettuce and alfalfa sprouts; cyclospora on raspberries and hepatitis A in strawberries have brought concern about the safety of the food supply to the forefront of public discussion.
The Clinton administration has instituted new regulations for processing meat, fish and poultry, and has recommended guidelines for safer growing and handling of produce.
"The government has tried all it can do to keep down the infections" caused by foodborne bugs, says Josephson, "but it's like milk: No matter how much care you take to make sure it's clean, you still have to pasteurize."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved irradiation for a range of foods, from potatoes to poultry, and is expected soon to permit its use on meat.
Catherine Woteki, the U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary for food safety, said Sunday in Chicago that the FDA has given "high priority" to the petition for use of irradiation in red meat. She expects a decision within weeks.
Irradiation got a ringing endorsement recently from the World Health Organization, which at a meeting in September concluded that it's safe, even at doses higher than current recommended top levels.
"The food irradiation technology itself is safe to such a degree," says a WHO statement, "that as long as sensory qualities of food are retained and harmful microorganisms are destroyed, the actual amount of ionizing radiation applied is of secondary consideration." Countries set their own upper limits for radiation doses, measured in kiloGrays, kGy, (1 kGy is enough energy to raise the temperature of a product by 0.43 degrees F). In the United States, spices, herbs and dry vegetable seasonings are being irradiated at levels up to 30 kGy. The FDA has authorized levels up to 1 kGy for fruits and vegetables, 3 kGy for poultry, and if irradiation is approved for use on red meats, the maximum level allowed will be 4.5 kGy for fresh meat and 7 kGy for frozen meat.
"In order to achieve safe food, you have to employ certain technologies," says Fritz Kaferstein, director of WHO's food safety program. "This is one of them."
But the idea of exposing food to gamma rays sets some people's teeth on edge. "This isn't a solution to meat contamination," says Michael Colby of the group Food and Water. "It's a series of whole new problems." Radioactive materials pose a threat to plant workers and to consumers who might be placed in danger by the need to transport such materials. "We're not talking about needing one or two (new food irradiation) plants," he says. "We're talking about hundreds of nuclear plants."
A better approach, he says, would be to focus on prevention of food contamination, starting at the farm or ranch. "When you propose irradiating the meat supply, you're saying it's OK to have filthy cattle yards . . . because at the end of the line, you're going to zap the meat with the equivalent of three million chest X-rays," he says. "Meat shouldn't be contaminated with fecal matter, whether you irradiate it or not."
Michael Osterholm, state epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health, agrees prevention of contamination is necessary, but still strongly advocates irradiation. "We need all these things," he says. "We're not talking about minimizing these other issues, but strengthening them."
Proposed food safety regulations in meat and poultry processing plants are aimed at identifying "critical control points," steps in processing where contamination could occur, and instituting safeguards. But that process, while laudable, "doesn't have a kill step," a place in the processing where sterilization occurs, says Osterholm. "We need a firewall. Irradiation of meat and poultry and some fruits and vegetables is to those foods what thermal pasteurization is to milk."
To frame the discussion as, " 'either the industry cleans up or we need irradiation' is not correct," he says. "Even if they do clean up, they cannot eliminate the risk" of foodborne disease.
In testimony Oct. 8 before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Osterholm called foodborne disease "a critical public health problem today," and said, "previous estimates of foodborne disease in this country grossly underestimate the extent of the real problem."
Based on random sampling, he estimates more than 250 million episodes of illness are caused by foodborne microbes in the United States each year. "Clearly, it is now the No. 1 reason for visits to our nation's emergency rooms," he said.
Irradiation is safe and effective, it leaves no residue in foods, nor does it change the flavor or nutritional value significantly, he says. "At the levels we're using it, there's less vitamin degradation than you get with microwaving or cooking," he says.
He's disappointed that the industry and public health officials haven't been more aggressive in promoting irradiation. "I have no vested interest," Osterholm says. "I'm just out here counting the bodies."
By Anita Manning, USA TODAY
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