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Irradiation for Beef Is Closer
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Washington - The Department of Agriculture is expected to announce Friday the approval of irradiation for red meats to control bacteria such as salmonella and potentially deadly strains of E. coli.
The department would require that irradiated meat be labeled, with a symbol and statement indicating that the product had been treated.
Whether the public will accept irradiated meat is unclear, since there has been so much resistance by consumers to the technology in the past. Only a small percentage of the U.S. food supply is irradiated, even though it is permitted for fruits, vegetables, pork, poultry and spices.
But outbreaks of food poisoning in the past few years have focused attention on irradiation to combat the spread of harmful bacteria, such as listeria.
Listeria, which has been responsible for the recall of millions of pounds of prepared meats in the past several months, might have been eradicated through irradiation. It is particularly dangerous to pregnant women because it can cause miscarriages and stillbirths.
The meat industry has long sought approval of irradiation for ground beef, which is the source of the greatest contamination in beef products. But IBP Inc., the largest supplier of beef in the United States, said the Agriculture Department's approval would not immediately prompt it to begin irradiating meat.
"If we have some customers who would like to test-market it," said Gary Mickelson, an IBP spokesman, "we may do it, but it will depend on consumer demand."
Irradiated meat is expected to cost about 5 cents more a pound, officials said. But even if consumers are willing to pay the additional money and overcome their suspicions about the treatment process, one problem remains - the taste and smell of the food, especially ground beef patties, which are the most likely form of beef to be irradiated.
Unless the packaging is just right, the level of irradiation exact, the fat in the beef can cause unappealing odors and taste. The color of the raw irradiated beef is also darker than fresh beef.
The Food and Drug Administration approved irradiation of red meat in December 1997, but the process could not be used until the Agriculture Department established rules. Irradiation, which has been available for almost 50 years, does not make food radioactive. The food is passed through a chamber containing radioactive cobalt-60, electron beams or X-rays that bombard the food and kill bacteria, insects and mold.
Surveys have suggested that few people know what food irradiation is. "People think it will make them glow in the dark," said Carol Tucker Foreman, a former Agriculture Department official and a partner in Foreman and Heidepriem, a Washington public-policy consulting firm. Foreman says irradiated food itself is not unsafe, but she and some consumer groups say there are other concerns.
"Irradiation is not a panacea," Foreman said. "You want people to have good sanitary conditions and avoid contamination to begin with, and irradiation tempts people to have less than pristine sanitary conditions." Irradiated contamination will not make you sick, she said, but it is still contamination.
Mark Klein, a spokesman for Excel Corp., the nation's second-largest supplier of beef and the company that developed steam pasteurization, a method to rid beef of harmful bacteria, said the corporation would test-market irradiated beef before it made plans to spend any money on the technology.
"Our plan would be to let consumers know and then make a decision," Klein said. "This should not be used as a replacement for any other food-safety program or technology."
Excel and IBP process more than half the beef sold in the United States. Excel is based in Wichita, Kan., and has a beef-packing plant near Schuyler, Neb. IBP is based in Dakota City, Neb.
But health officials, especially those who have to deal with outbreaks related to harmful bacteria such as E. coli O157:H7, see irradiation as the only solution to the increasing levels of harmful bacteria in food. Dr. Michael Osterholm, the state epidemiologist at the Minnesota Health Department, is a champion of irradiation. "I'm extremely pleased it's there," he said, "but I have not heard industry screaming for it. The next hurdle is having it used."
Although the Agriculture Department will make an announcement about its approval Friday, its proposed rules are to be published in the Federal Register within 10 days and will be followed by a 60-day comment period. The irradiation of beef could begin as early as the end of April.
But its lasting efficacy is being debated. Foreman said that in the long run "bacteria are likely to develop resistance to irradiation," just as they have to one antibiotic after another
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