Food Irradiation Update is published by the Minnesota Beef Council

Quotable Quotes:

"After changes in meat regulation dropped recall amounts from 23 million pounds in 2002 to only 181,900 pounds in 2006, 39 million pounds of E. coli tainted meat has been recalled since the spring of 2007. The numbers have just shot up in the last year,î says Marler, ìand so have illnesses. If this was a serial killer ó which, actually, it is ó every resource in this country would have been mobilized against it. Nothing less is acceptable.î

Bill Marler, MarlerClark, Attorney at Law

"Irradiation has been touted as a safe way to decontaminate fresh produce, but many people objected to the treatment as unsafe. But the serious illnesses and even deaths that result from the problem is worth exploring irradiation and other treatments further, to do less will only continue to endanger the public".

Eastern Group Publications On-Line Commentary

In This Update:

Marler Clark Files First Georgia Lawsuit in National E. coli Outbreak

Time to Irradiate Produce

Health: Irradiated Beef

Keeping Food Bacteria-Free With Irradiation

Here's where you can learn what's happening with JalapeÒo peppers and other produce

Lessons from the Salmonella Outbreak

Important Food Safety Links:

Kansas State University

Marler Blog

Food Irradiation Processing Alliance (FIPA)

Marler Clark Files First Georgia Lawsuit in National E. coli Outbreak; Cattle Network; July 22, 2008

Time to Irradiate Produce: Bell Gardens Sun; (July 24, 2008) Eastern Group Publications On-Line:

After hundreds of millions of dollars in tomato crops losses and more than 1,200 reported illnesses caused by the Salmonella Saintpaul bacteria, the causes of the contamination may not have been tomatoes after all.

Now, weeks later, following the discovery of one lone jalapeno contaminated with the virulent bacteria, the Food and Drug Administration has issued warnings to the public not to eat raw jalapenos.

And so now, like the tomatoes before them, jalapenos have been pulled off grocery store shelves. The public is being told to throw out any raw jalapenos in their homes and to avoid eating them at restaurants. Restaurant owners are being told to discard the suspicious jalapenos.

What this food crisis has called to attention is the fact that fresh food products now travel around the globe and a more efficient screening process is desperately needed to ensure that produce and other products are not contaminated before they enter our food stream.

Itís difficult enough to find contaminated produce grown in the U.S. Add in all the foreign grown and produced food products and the issue becomes that much more complicated. Nonetheless, a method for decontaminating the product is needed.

Irradiation has been touted as a safe way to decontaminate fresh produce, but many people objected to the treatment as unsafe. But the serious illnesses and even deaths that result from the problem is worth exploring irradiation and other treatments further, to do less will only continue to endanger the public.

Health: Irradiated Beef; (July 1, 2008): Stephanie Stahl Reporting

PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― In health, eating hamburgers any way you like them, even rare, without being afraid of getting sick. Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl has the sizzling details on the high-tech way to make meat safe.

Hamburgers are the all-American favorite. But ground beef is especially prone to being contaminated with the potentially deadly bacteria E. coli. The simple solution is thoroughly cooking burgers to kill any germs.

Now there's an alternative, irradiated beef. Even though it sounds like it, there's no radiation involved. The meat is zapped with an electrical current that destroys any bacteria.

"It's sort of similar to the idea that adding heat to beef would cook it and destroy the bacteria. The electrical current actually destroys the bacteria instead without cooking the meat," said Trent O'Drain, an Executive Chef with Wegmans. He says the grocery store is now selling its own brand of irradiated beef, along with a marketing campaign saying you can "cook it the way you like it."

"They were great, delicious," said Rosalie Brett, a mother of two young boys. She says the new burgers taste just like your typical beef patties, with the extra safety protection. "It would definitely be a good option," said Rosalie.

"My concern as a food safety educator is confusion for the consumer," said Dr. Jennifer Quinlan, a Food Microbiologist at Drexel University. She says the process of irradiation is safe and approved by the FDA. But people might not understand, only irradiated beef is okay to eat rare, not regular ground beef.

"If it results in consumers thinking now it's okay to eat any raw beef. If it gives consumers the idea that they can take their regular beef and now for some reason don't have to cook it as thoroughly, then we run the risk of consumers not cooking their beef as thoroughly," said Dr. Quinlan.

Regular hamburger needs to be cooked to 160 degrees. It's best to use a thermometer to check the temperature. But if you don't have one, to be extra safe make sure the juices are clear and there is no pink in the middle.

The irradiated beef costs ten cents more per pound than regular fresh ground beef.

http://cbs3.com/seenon/irradiated.beef.wegmans.2.761732.html

Keeping Food Bacteria-Free With Irradiation; KPTH FOX 44; July 1, 2008;

Nebraska Beef LTD recalls over 5,000,000 pounds of beef after being linked to an E-coli outbreak.

From produce to poultry, these days, food recalls are becoming the norm. So why isn't the process of irradiating food used more often?

Since 2000, Sioux City's Sadex Corporation has been irradiating beef, killing all the bacteria in it. But for fruits and vegetables, they've only been approved by the FDA to be irradiated for deinfestation, just enough to get rid of all the bugs. Supporters of the process are now looking to expand the bacteria-killing treatment to other foods.

"You throw a steak on the grill, you cook it to rare, it's virtually safe because the E-coli lives on the surface. But once you take that whole muscle product and you grind it, then you have that E-coli within that product," says Harlan Clemmons, President of Sadex Corporation.

Irradiation takes the E-coli and other microorganisms out of a food product in a matter of minutes. Experts in the field say the process doesn't use radioactive or chemical agents.  

"Common commercial electricity. Turn it into irradiation by taking the electrons and speeding those up to 99.99 percent the speed of light, scanning them over the food products which then basically, disrupt the DNA pattern of the pathogens," says Clemmons.

Clemmons says irradiation ensures food safety and can double or even triple a product's shelf life. It's a process fully supported by U.S. Senator from Iowa, Charles Grassley. "Processes like this ought to be available as an alternative to food manufacturers so they have a cost-effective way to go against recalls," says Grassley.

"Irradiated food is safe, there are over 40 to 50 years of research done in it," says Clemmons.  "When you read about what it will do to protect people, it brings you around to why isn't the government approving it for other products?" says Grassley.

A concern Senator Grassley is taking back to Washington D.C.  http://www.kpth.com/Global/story.asp?S=8588562

Metropolitan consumers in Kansas appear less likely to change their purchasing habits when it comes to foodborne outbreaks, according to a new study from Kansas State University's department of agricultural economics.

The study, by Sean Fox, professor of agricultural economics, and Alexandra Gregory, doctoral candidate in agricultural economics, polled consumers in two major markets - Los Angeles, Calif., and Wichita, Kan. Consumers in both cities were questioned about their purchasing habits related to potential foodborne illness. Survey topics ranged from avian flu in chicken and E. coli in spinach, to the treatment of food with irradiation and antibiotics in meat.

"What we were trying to do was learn what consumers knew about food safety and determine how that impacted their choices as consumers," Fox said. "When there is a situation like a food recall - even if it's a low-risk situation - they tend to get a lot of publicity."

During fall 2007, the researchers sent surveys to 1,000 people in each city. The survey had a 30 percent response rate, with more answering from Kansas than from California.

Overall, consumers in Los Angeles seemed to be more likely to react to reports of foodborne contamination. For example, when asked about E. coli contaminated spinach - a real-life scenario in 2006 - consumers in Los Angeles were more likely to report a change in their purchasing habits than those in Wichita. In Wichita, 55 percent of people said they didn't change their spinach purchases following the 2006 E. Coli scare, with a corresponding 45 percent in Los Angeles, Fox said.

The surveys also asked about how the respondents' poultry consumption would change if a case of bird flu were found in a wild bird in Montana. In that case, those in Los Angeles were 20 percent more likely to eat less chicken than those in Wichita.

"Seventy percent of Wichitans said their consumption wouldn't change, whereas the corresponding percent for Los Angeles was 50 percent," Fox said. Furthermore, 14 percent of Los Angeles respondents said they would stop consuming poultry altogether, compared to only 7 percent in Wichita, he said.

While not sure of the reason for this difference, Fox noted that Kansans are typically more familiar with agricultural issues. He also pointed to the lower response rate from the L.A. sample and the possibility that those who did respond may have been more concerned about food safety issues in general. Fox and Gregory are still examining the data for further details.

Consumers were also asked whether they were more or less likely to purchase food that had been irradiated. Irradiation is a method of decontamination in which foods are exposed to ionizing energy similar to X-rays. The technology has been shown to effectively destroy disease-causing bacteria that might be present in food without affecting the nutritional quality, according to Fox.

Though consumers in both cities were equally knowledgeable about irradiation prior to the survey, when provided with a description of the technology, consumers in Los Angeles were less likely to choose an irradiated food product than consumers in Wichita.

"Almost 40 percent of respondents had not heard of food irradiation prior to our survey," Fox said. "People could benefit by knowing more about technologies like food irradiation because it can kill foodborne pathogens on spinach and leafy vegetables, products for which there isn't a common kill step for the consumer before eating. It can do the same for meat products that pasteurization now does for milk."

Other survey findings of note include:

* Wichitans were more likely to lean toward purchasing cheaper meat from animals treated with antibiotics while, even at a significantly higher price, residents of Los Angeles leaned toward the antibiotic-free variety.

* Wichitans reported eating more beef that those in Los Angeles, though Los Angeles consumers reported eating more vegetables. Chicken consumption was roughly the same.

The study was funded by the Food Safety Consortium, of which K-State is a partner. Newswise Social and Behavioral Sciences News | California Consumers Appear More Likely Than Kansans to Change Purchasing Habi.

Calavo Growers Acquires Hawaii-Based Papaya and Tropical-Product Packing, Processing Operations

SANTA PAULA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Calavo Growers, Inc. (Nasdaq:CVGW) today announced that it has acquired Hawaiian Sweet Inc. and Hawaii Pride LLC, papaya and tropical-product packing and processing operations on the Big Island owned by Calavoís Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Lee E. Cole. The company also reported that it has appointed Michael R. Lippold, CFA, a food-industry securities analyst, as director of strategic development, a newly created position.

A worldwide leader in avocado marketing and an expanding provider of other fresh-commodity-produce items, Calavo said that both the papaya acquisition and Lippold hire are consistent with its CEOís declared business agenda targeting 25 percent compound annual revenue growth through fiscal 2013.

Under terms of the transaction, Calavo acquires fresh operations which pack an estimated 65-70 percent of all Hawaiian-grown papayas and 80 percent of the mainland supply originating from the islands. The purchase brings under company ownership two fresh-papaya packinghouses and cooling facilities, papaya and guava puree operations (sold in bulk to food manufacturers) and U.S.D.A.-approved electronic-beam-irradiation technology used for processing Hawaiian sweet potatoes, papayas, and other tropical fruits bound for export. Calavo also gains approximately 3,000 acres on the eastern slopes of the Big Islandómore than 725 owned and the remainder under leaseówhich, in turn, are sublet to farmers under contract for their harvests with Hawaiian Sweet. Calavo Growers Acquires Hawaii-Based Papaya and Tropical-Product Packing, Processing Operations;

Weíve been hearing a lot about the gram negative bacteria Salmonella this summer, a strain of which to date has sickened over 1,000 people across 42 states. First we thought it was contaminating tomatoes, and the industry took a multi-million dollar hit. Lately the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shifted its focus to cilantro, jalapenos, serrano and other peppers used in salsa.  I think there are several lessons we can learn from this mystery:

• Though Salmonella doesnít sicken produce, it does sicken humans. Unfortunately, it is developing an ability in some species to deeply infect and spread among produce. The current strain, Salmonella Saint Paul, although it is not more virulent than other common strains - causing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and cramping, it is more easily spread.
• There is an inadequate tracing or regulating of produce entering the U.S.  The USDA regulates farming, and the FDA regulates food, but too often food safety falls in the gap between these two agencies.
• Salmonella and other bacteria that are prevalent in cattle and chickens, can easily be spread by irrigation or by food handlers to our produce. We can partially protect ourselves from salmonella in our meats by cooking them thoroughly, but we eat many of our fruits and vegetables raw.  This raises the stakes for more effectively tracking our produce.
• Washing produce is not effective at completely removing pathogenic bacteria like salmonella. Chemicals which are useful in the food handling process such as chlorine dioxide (kills salmonella more than 95 percent of the time) are not commonly used. Genetic splicing techniques and irradiation are other ways to make produce more resistant to bacteria.

 Lessons from the Salmonella Outbreak ´ FOX News Health Blog ´ FOXNews.com