Quotable Quotes:

"As a farmer, I want consumers to have a safe continuous food supply, and food irradiation is one of the tools to provide food safety and security for the nation. It is time to step forward to endorse irradiation as a safe and effective tool in preventing foodborne illness. We must all do our part in practicing proper food storage, handling and preparation practices in our homes. Purchasing irradiated products, especially meats, will help afford our families with maximum safety and protection against foodborne illness.

Yvonne Erickson, President American AgriWomen

"We are going to irradiate our ground beef, or we aren't going to sell ground beef."

Bruce Simon, President, Omaha Steaks
 

In This Update:

FDA Proposes Labeling Changes in Irradiated Foods

Irradiation is Safe for Food

USDA APHIS Issues Final Rule for Imports of Indian Mangoes

FDA seeks safety checks for fruits, veggies; Critics call voluntary testing `meaningless'

Florida Company Puts Barriers Between Pathogens and Food

Senate panel OKs measures to deter E. coli outbreaks

Misinformation Machine Media: An apology to Joe Mendelson for thinking he lied to an audience at the National Academy of Sciences

Radiation processing of food is a safe technology

Texas A & M Teaching Module: Improving Safety of Complex Food Items using Electron Beam Technology

Food Irradiation Research and Technology text book now available from IFT & Blackwell Publishing

BATTLE LAKE, Minn. Upon reading a letter about food irradiation not being a good solution for food safety in the Feb. 19 AgWeek,  I must present the positive side of using irradiation for food safety.

As a farmer, I want consumers to have a safe continuous food supply, and food irradiation is one of the tools to provide food safety and security for the nation.

There are interesting parallels between irradiation and the advent of pasteurization more than 100 years ago. Since then, we know pasteurization has been shown to prevent foodborne illnesses. With hundreds of studies done over 50 years proving irradiation is a safe and effective food safety technology we need not question the irradiation safety factor anymore. It is now endorsed by the World Health Organization, the U.S. Surgeon General, Centers for Disease Control, the American Medical Association and many other credible medical and scientific organizations.

My husband and I have toured a food irradiation plant in Florida. There we learned in the U.S. irradiation is approved for red meat, poultry, wheat flour, spices, fresh fruits and vegetables. During the irradiation process, the food never touches the energy source and does not become radioactive. However, it does kill harmful bacteria, parasites, insects and larvae depending on the product irradiated. We also learned the ìspaceî food for the astronauts was irradiated in that plant This certainly emphasized the safety precautions to make the food safer for them and to make the food supply safe for consumers. Any doubts we had about food irradiation were erased after this tour.

As president of American AgriWomen, I strongly support the Food and Drug Administrationís decision to allow irradiation of ground beef and other food products. Illness because of foodborne pathogens can be greatly reduced if this additional tool, enhancing food safety.

It is time to step forward to endorse irradiation as a safe and effective tool in preventing foodborne illness. We must all do our parts in practicing proper food storage, handling and preparation practices in our homes. Purchasing irradiated products, especially meats, will help afford our families with maximum safety and protection against foodborne illness.

From the Federal Register (March 12, 2007)

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES, FOOD IRRADIATION AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE

*   Mango Imports from India into the United States* The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has issued a Final Rule which amends its " ... /fruits and vegetables regulations to allow the importation into the continental United States of mangoes from India ... As a condition of entry, the mangoes must undergo irradiation treatment and be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with additional declarations providing specific information regarding the  treatment and inspection of the mangoes and the orchards in which they  were grown. In addition, the mangoes will be subject to inspection at the port of first arrival. This action allows for the importation of mangoes from India into the continental United States while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of quarantine pests/ ..." - The rule took effect on March 12, 2007 - APHIS Contact: Donna West, Commodity Import Analysis and Operations, PPQ at 301 734 8758 - APHIS March 12 /Federal Register/: http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20071800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2007/E7-4444.htm

Florida Company Puts Barriers Between Pathogens and Food; (March 18, 2007) Orlando Sentinel; By Kelly Griffith, Staff Writer

MULBERRY -- Omaha Steaks Co. President Bruce Simon doesn't want any dead tailgaters -- or anyone else -- haunting his conscience.

So, for more than seven years, his family-owned company has called on a Polk County business to zap its burgers with cobalt-60, a radioactive material that kills bacteria such as E. coli, which can contaminate the surface of beef during slaughter and sicken or even kill people. "Bruce felt very strongly he did not want any of our products to have anything to do with making anyone very ill," said Beth Weiss, a spokeswoman for the 90-year-old company. "He said, 'We are going to irradiate our ground beef, or we aren't going to sell ground beef.' "

Enter Food Technology Services Inc., a Mulberry company that uses cobalt-60 to irradiate food and medical supplies for a variety of customers, including NASA. Astronauts' meals get the treatment before they go into space. The cobalt sends gamma rays through the food, killing most bacteria by disrupting their DNA. In the case of NASA, the company uses higher doses to kill viruses, too.

Outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, such as the E. coli-tainted spinach late last year that sickened 200 people or a more recent salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter that sickened nearly 330 in 41 states, point to the need for as many barriers as possible in the food-safety chain, said company President Richard Hunter.

It's a process that has drawn vocal critics but gets the stamp of approval from government and leading health agencies. Shiny, thin, 2-foot-long stainless-steel rods are filled with pellets of cobalt-60. More than 100 such rods are loaded into a large cylinder and placed in the irradiation chamber, which is surrounded by 6-foot-thick walls of concrete to protect people on the outside from the gamma rays continually released from the cobalt-60.

Food, such as the Omaha Steaks burgers, or medical supplies are sent through the chamber -- first snaking through a labyrinth since gamma rays are like a flashlight beam and cannot turn corners -- and stopped at eight locations for the radiation to penetrate. The whole process takes just a few minutes. When the product comes out the other side of the chamber, most bacteria have been killed.

A 10-foot-deep pool of water underneath the chamber acts as a radiation barrier, allowing workers to lower the cylinder into the water when maintenance is needed.

Workers such as John Morrissey, 36, of Lakeland test the products to make sure they have been dosed correctly at the end of the process. He carries a device that measures radiation just in case he was exposed to too much. It's never happened, the company says. "I've been working here nine years," Morrissey said. "The safety precautions [we take] are almost overkill."

Hunter, a former deputy state health officer, doesn't think all food needs to be irradiated, but he does think more needs to be. Right now, about 2 percent of the nation's food supply undergoes the irradiation process, he said. But America's system of food safety is broken, critics say, and Hunter points to irradiation as one tool to help fix it.

Critics, though, balk. Groups that oppose irradiating food say the food tastes bad or is unsafe, possibly cancer-causing, the process covers up problems in the meat-packing industry, and the long-term effects of irradiation are unknown. Groups such as the Organic Consumers Association, an activist organization that says it has more than 850,000 members and volunteers and opposes irradiation, tout alternatives, such as better handling earlier in the meat-packing process.

They slam media coverage of reports by the American Medical Association, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, American Dietetic Association, American Veterinary Medical Association, U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the World Health Organization, all of which say irradiation is safe.

Those agencies are more concerned about industry than with consumers or farmers, critics say.

Hunter acknowledges that small amounts of nutrients are lost during irradiation and compares it with the canning process, which also causes some nutrients to be lost. The future, Hunter thinks, will see fewer critics and more consumers with confidence in what his company does. Research already shows the public is coming around. In the 1980s, only half of Americans were comfortable with irradiation, according to a Texas study. By the 1990s, that figure had climbed to 70 percent.

Hunter thinks the best education will come when Americans see exotic and unfamiliar fruits and vegetables -- irradiated in countries such as Thailand and India -- in their grocery stores. He visited Malaysia last year, and vivid fruits and melons not often seen in the United States filled the marketplaces, offering exotic delights to international travelers.

Several countries are expected to begin exporting some irradiated fruits and vegetables in coming months and years, giving Americans not only more choices at the produce counter, but a taste -- or lack thereof -- of irradiation. The irradiation process not only slows the spoilage of produce but also kills exotic insect larvae that might try to tag along.

"I think when people see how high-quality they are -- and irradiated -- they will get educated," Hunter said.

For now, meat remains the biggest concern: "If you're going to eat a medium-rare burger, it'd be better to do it with irradiated beef," he said.

Kelly Griffith can be reached at kgriffith@orlandosentinel.com or 863-422-5908.

FDA seeks safety checks for fruits, veggies; Critics call voluntary testing `meaningless'; Chicago Tribune; By John Schmeltzer (March 13, 2007)

With U.S. consumption of lettuce and spinach declining in the wake of several serious food-poisoning episodes, government regulators Monday called on produce processors to install monitoring systems to detect food-borne contaminants.

But the Food and Drug Administration said it would not impose mandatory testing, at least for now, despite acknowledging that the system for monitoring fresh fruit and vegetable safety long has been problematic.

The voluntary testing plan was immediately excoriated by a watchdog group as "meaningless," while a major industry trade association said its members would comply but also pushed for further regulation.

Both the government and producers are feeling pressure to boost confidence in the nation's food supply after a rash of high-profile contamination incidents in recent years. In September, the FDA issued a nationwide recall of fresh spinach due to an E. coli outbreak that killed three people and sickened 182.

"The outbreaks indicate that more needs to be done to limit the illnesses," said Nega Beru, director of the Office of Food Safety. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 76 million cases of food-borne illnesses are reported each year in the U.S. The agency estimates that about 325,000 people are hospitalized and about 5,000 die each year.

Ensuring the safety of the nation's fresh fruit and vegetable supply has become especially critical because of government efforts to increase consumption of those foods to reduce obesity rates. The CDC this month, in cooperation with food companies, is to launch a new campaign aimed at promoting the consumption of five servings of fruits or vegetables per day.

But industry officials say that sales of lettuce and spinach are down 20 percent in the wake of several E. coli outbreaks last fall. Besides the spinach incident, contaminants were traced in separate outbreaks to 90 Taco Bell outlets in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Long Island, N.Y., as well as several Taco John restaurants in Iowa and southern Minnesota.

According to a survey by the Food Policy Institute at Rutgers University, about 60 percent of those surveyed said they have not resumed eating spinach since September's recall.

While researchers for the CDC had traced the spinach poisonings to farms in California's Salinas Valley, the FDA said it would not impose regulations on growers. Instead, it wants to focus on processors that package and distribute the produce.

An FDA official indicated the agency supported a voluntary monitoring program because it would be quicker to enact than mandating cooperation.

"We think we can get compliance in shorter order, but we haven't ruled out rulemaking," said Dr. David Acheson, director of the FDA's Office of Food Defense, Communication and Emergency Response, noting that the rulemaking process requires lengthy hearings.

The labs would follow a system in place for meat, poultry and seafood that requires monitoring for contaminants at multiple points along the production process, such as at cooling, packaging and metal detection, rather than just spot-checking at the end.

The system apparently has been successful in reducing the outbreaks in beef but less successful in seafood and poultry outbreaks, according to records maintained by the CDC.

Thomas Stenzel, president and chief executive of the United Fresh Produce Association, which represents about half of the nation's produce industry, supports the new guidelines.

"We pledge our commitment to seeing these guidelines implemented in every produce-processing operation," he said at a hearing before the agriculture subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee in Madison, Wis.

Stenzel called on the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop nationwide mandatory regulations that would apply not only to processors but also to growers.

"We must be able ... to reassure the public that, together, we have done everything necessary," he said.

The hearing, conducted by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), was held in Madison because the spinach contamination was discovered by the Wisconsin Division of Public Health.

Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, blistered the recommendations, saying at the hearing they "are too little too late to prevent the very real problems we are facing." She noted that the E. coli outbreak in spinach had as many deaths associated with it as the Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak in 1992.

"Not only are these guidelines meaningless domestically, they are unenforceable internationally," Smith DeWaal said.

According to the FDA, about one-third of the nation's supply of fresh fruits and vegetables are imported, mainly from Mexico.

Dennis Olson, a professor at Iowa State University who has suggested that contamination problems in leafy vegetables could be eliminated if they were irradiated, said the FDA would be unable to police a mandatory program.

"They don't have enough inspectors," he said.

Olson said the industry is caught between a rock and a hard place. Only about half of the nation's processors have some sort of inspection program in place, according to the FDA.

"Implementing these guidelines is going to have some costs, and, therefore, there is no incentive to comply, yet they want to keep their businesses going. So there are some conflicting incentives," he said.

Joe Schwieterman, a public-policy specialist at DePaul University and the head of the university's Chaddick Institute, said there is bound to be an increase in cost for the consumer.

"The costs of these regulations always trickle down to the consumer," he said. " Higher costs and reduced supply are the likely outcomes. There is a risk that one-size-fits-all regulations will, in the end, accomplish little."
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jschmeltzer@tribune.com

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA - Bills designed to prevent E. coli contamination of spinach and other leafy green vegetables narrowly cleared a key legislative committee Tuesday over the objection of farm groups.

The Senate Agriculture Committee approved three bills that would impose tougher standards on growers of spinach, lettuce, sprouts and similar crops.

The California Farm Bureau Federation and Western Growers Association said the bills are unnecessary because the industry is adopting new safety standards on its own this year.

The organizations said those steps will improve safety more quickly than the bills authored by Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter. The groups also said their internal measures also will give the industry more ability to adapt safety practices to changing farm conditions and technology.

"But there can be no safety guarantees until consumers accept some sort of "kill step" such as irradiation," said Western Growers Association Vice President Dave Puglia. That's necessary to sterilize a product that is grown outdoors and eaten raw, he said.  "It's not a risk-free world," Puglia said. "It's not a risk-free product."

Elisa Odabashian, director of the West Coast office of Consumers Union, told senators that repeated outbreaks have shown that growers and processors cannot police themselves. "Voluntary self-regulation by the leafy greens industry has been disastrous for consumers," she said.

Florez's bills are in response to last September's E. coli outbreak in spinach and lettuce that was grown primarily in California's Salinas Valley. The outbreak was blamed for contamination that killed at least three people and sickened about 300 nationwide. Lettuce, spinach and sprouts can be contaminated with the E. coli bacteria if they come in contact with manure.

The bills would give the state Department of Public Health the power to test irrigation water, soil and produce, as well as the authority to recall contaminated produce.

To help clear the committee, Florez amended the bills to give the Department of Food and Agriculture a role in enforcing the new standards and removed provisions requiring farmers to obtain new licenses and pay fees for inspections. He also incorporated a safety program being developed by lettuce and spinach growers.

It is the only method to kill deep residing bacteria without product damage

Irradiation can reduce the risk of food poisoning, control food spoilage and extend foods' shelf-life Being a cold process, nutrient losses are less than those associated with other methods

ON MARCH 1, 2007 the Ministry of Food Processing Industries issued an advertisement offering 25 per cent of the total cost of plant and machinery and technical civil work in general areas and 33.33 per cent in difficult areas subject to a maximum of Rs 5 crore for setting up food irradiation facilities in India. This will promote radiation processing of foods, a safe technology, in India.

Five irradiators are constructed and three are under construction. The Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT) has signed MOUs with 7 other companies.

Mango irradiation

The process got a shot in the arm when the United States of America (USA) decided to import Indian mangoes by April this year. USA prefers irradiation to get rid of weevils and fruit fly from the fruits.

The administrative and legal procedures to start mango irradiation will be in place shortly. Then farmers can export mangoes to un-chartered markets.

We do not have precise data on food-borne diseases from different countries. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalisations, and 5,000 deaths occur each year due to food-borne illnesses in the U.S.

Children vulnerable

Irradiation provides protection (that is unavailable by any other means) against food-borne illness.

Children, people over age 55, diabetics, and those whose immunity is compromised are especially vulnerable.

Harmful E-coli cause haemorrhagic colitis leading to high fever, vomiting and bloody diarrhoea. Patients with compromised immunity may suffer kidney damage. Six per cent of such patients die.

In 2006, the outbreak of food borne E.Coli O157 through spinach consumption led to 199 cases of illnesses, 102 hospitalisations, 31 cases of kidney damage and three deaths across 26 States in the United States. Irradiation is the only method, which can kill bacteria residing deep within a lettuce or spinach leaf without damaging the product.

In February 2006, the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST), an independent professional qualifying body of scientists and technologists stated thus: "Irradiation, carried out under conditions of Good Manufacturing Practice, is commended as an effective, widely applicable food processing method judged to be safe on extensive available evidence, that can reduce the risk of food poisoning, control food spoilage and extend the shelf-life of foods without detriment to health and with minimal effect on nutritional or sensory quality".

View endorsed

The World Health Organization, the Food and Agricultural Organization and Codex Alimentarius Commission and many other bodies endorse this view. According to IFST, so far more than 50 countries have given approval for irradiation of more than 60 food products. Irradiation helps to preserve food, control sprouting of items such as potato and onion and control food-borne diseases.

It destroys or inactivates organisms that cause spoilage, thereby extending the shelf life of certain foods.

But foods must be kept in airtight bags to prevent re-infestation. The process does not leave any residue. The products remain closer to the fresh state in flavour, colour and texture. During the process, no liquid is added; it does not cause loss of natural juices.

As food irradiation is essentially a cold process, nutrient losses are significantly less than those associated with canning, drying and heat pasteurisation.

`Meltdown' impossible

Some patients with poor immunity and astronauts eat only irradiated foods. Irradiation of food with approved radiation sources will not make it radioactive.  It is also impossible for a `meltdown' to occur in a gamma irradiator facility.

The European Committee for Standardization of the European Commission has published six standards to identify irradiated food. Fat-containing irradiated food can be identified by gas chromatographic analysis of hydrocarbons.

If irradiated food contains cellulose or bone or crystalline sugar, electron spin resonance spectroscopy is used. Thermo-luminescence of the silicate fraction seen in spices is useful to identify irradiated spices. Photo-stimulated luminescence, DNA comet assay are also used in the case of some foods.

System of barriers

A system of interlocks and barriers ensures that no person can enter the radiation area when the sources are exposed. The staff employed at the facility are well trained and qualified.

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) inspects the facilities periodically. The radiation doses to workers in the current facilities are only small fractions of the limit prescribed by AERB.

The Atomic Energy (Control of Irradiation of Foods) Rules 1996 and the relevant notifications issued under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act 1954 are applicable to commercial irradiation of food in India.

K.S. PARTHASARATHY

Former Secretary, AERB
(ksparth@yahoo.co.uk)

Texas A & M University has recently completed a USDA sponsored project was called "Improving Safety of Complex Food Items using Electron Beam Technology." The titles of the four teaching modules are:

Lesson 1 : Microbiological Safety of Fresh Fruits & Vegetables

Lesson 2 : Control of Microbial Growth & Foodborne Disease Pathogens in Fresh Fruits & Vegetables

Lesson 3 : Current Strategies used to Eliminate or Reduce Pathogenic Microorganisms from Fruits and Vegetables

Lesson 4: Science and Applications of Electron Beam Irradiation Technology

The lessons may be accessed by all at http://aggiehorticulture.tamu.edu/foodsafety/foodsafetyissues.html

For more information contact:

Tom A. "Andy" Vestal, Ph.D.

Professor and Extension Specialist

AgNR Emergency Management

Texas Cooperative Extension

Dept of Agric Leadership, Education & Communications

Mail Stop 2116

Texas A&M University

College Station, TX 77843-2116

979.862.3013 http://www.aged.tamu.edu/people/faculty/vestal-a.asp