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In This Update:

Irradiation is the only way we can confidently say the meat we eat is safe to eat

Irradiation of high-risk foods: Has its time come?

Wisconsin Firm Recalls Ground Beef Products Due To Possible  E. Coli O157:H7 Contamination

Thailand is latest country to make a splash in the U.S. market with irradiated tropical fruit

Philippine Government projects increase in fruit exports

Hi-tech nuclear science is feeding the Worldís Poor

Consume irradiated food, advises US nutrition expert

Hawaii fruit growers getting a break

Whereís the Irradiated Beef?

Marler Blog

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

E. coli is simply the enemy; we should treat it as nothing less: Irradiation is the only way we can confidently say the meat we eat is safe; (November 24, 2007) By Michael Osterholm

Mark Twain once said, "Get your facts first and then you can distort them as much as you want." Local restaurateur Lenny Russo surely should take Twain's advice to heart. His Nov. 19 commentary ("Tainted food calls for changes in farm practice") contained lots of distortions, but was terribly short on facts. He claimed that if we just raised our cattle on pastures, not feedlots, bought them from local farmers and used local processors, the E. coli problem in red meat would disappear. Not true.

Russo cited conclusions from a 1998 study from Cornell University that cattle fed a diet of grass, not grain, had very few E. coli, and that those bacteria that survived in the cattle feces would not survive in the human when eaten in undercooked meat, particularly hamburger. This statement is based on a study of only three cows rotated on different diets and for which the researchers did not even test for E. coli O157:H7. Unfortunately, the authors extrapolated these incredibly sparse results to the entire cattle industry. The Cornell study is uncorroborated in numerous published scientific papers from renowned research groups around the world. Finally, work conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health as part of a national study on foodborne disease recently showed that eating red meat from local farms was a significant risk factor for E. coli infection.

The bottom line for me, and what I've spent my professional career trying to do, is to never again experience a child suffering from the excruciating pain of an E. coli infection or have to console a grieving parent whose child has just died from eating an undercooked hamburger. Russo would understand this issue in an entirely different light if he had been with me when I had to explain to distraught parents that their young daughter's death was due to eating an undercooked hamburger, prepared by them, and the E. coli that caused her illness came from meat from a cow raised only on pasture grass and processed by the local meat packer. The cow also came from Grandpa's farm down the road.

I hold all parties that are part of food chain responsible for ensuring that E. coli-related foodborne disease never happens again. While maintaining good agricultural practices is important for animal health and environmental reasons, no credible research has identified a magic wand that a farmer can use to significantly lower the E. coli in our meat supply. And there is never a justification for failing to meet the highest sanitation standards possible in our meat processing plants. But we must realize that there is simply no way to ensure that microscopic contamination of feces on the carcass doesn't happen when the animal is disemboweled.

In the sterile surgical suites of our ultra modern hospitals, almost 3 percent of all "clean surgeries" still result in a post-surgical site infection. This means bacterial contamination from the patient's skin or from someone else on the surgical team infected that incision. If surgeons can't do any better under ideal sterile conditions, how can we expect a meat processing plant to guarantee that the carcass coming off the line doesn't have some hidden microscopic E. coli?

Finally, we can only hope that the consumer also will take responsibility for never serving undercooked ground beef or any inadequately cooked meat of poultry product. But, as we know, it still happens.

In the end, there is only one absolute measure to address this issue: food irradiation. This process, which primarily uses an electron gun -- just like the one in your TV, except at higher power -- that turns electricity into an energy that safely and cost-effectively kills bacteria like E. coli. It does so without significantly changing the flavor, color or nutrient content of the food. Routine irradiation of meat and poultry would do for those food commodities what pasteurization did for milk: make them safe. In the end, that's all that matters, particularly for those who have lost loved ones needlessly to E.coli infection.

Michael Osterholm is director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.

Irradiation of high-risk foods: Has its time come? Prairie Star, Great Falls, MT (Nov. 9, 2007)

By DARYLL E. RAY

Ground beef recalls this year have reached 29 million pounds in 2007 and there are still two months to go. The size of companies involved in the recalls due to E.coli O157:H7 have ranged from small local firms with local or regional distribution systems to large firms like Topps Meat Company and Cargill Meat Solutions.

From time to time we have written columns about food-borne illnesses and food recalls. This latest round of E. coli contaminated meat has come close to home as we have listened to local news stories about three children whose hospitalization has been linked by the Knox County Tennessee Health Department to the ground beef recall. In a fourth case that has not been linked to the other three cases, a toddler died of as the result of E. coli.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), using a 1999 study, estimates that E.coli O157:H7 is responsible for ì73,000 cases of infection and 61 deaths occur in the United States each year.î

If this level of illness and death were to be caused by a medicine, we would expect to see an immediate withdrawal of the product from the market.

It seems to us that tackling a problem like this requires a combination of private and public policy so that we don't continue to see children put on dialysis machines because of what they ate.

The most immediate thing a consumer can do is to make sure that all of the hamburger that they serve is cooked to a minimum of 160 degrees F and that they observe sanitary precautions in the handling of meat and meat products.

On a recent trip, one of us ordered a hamburger at a major restaurant chain-the cooking instructions were ìmedium.î When the hamburger arrived at the table it was not just pink inside, it was raw. Being polite, we went ahead and ate the burger.

According to the CDC ìIf you are served an undercooked hamburger or other ground beef product in a restaurant, send it back for further cooking. You may want to ask for a new bun and a clean plate, too.î Given the level of recent recalls, that advice takes on a new level of importance because, like others, we had grown complacent about food-borne illnesses.

We also need to look at the meat inspection procedures that are in place and see if there are areas that need to be tightened up. Both consumers and processors have an interest in making sure that the food processing system operates at the highest level of standards. For consumers it may be a matter of life and death and for companies it can mean added costs for the recall and even bankruptcy.

The problem is that despite all the inspections and food cooking and handling recommendations, E. coli and other food-borne illnesses like listeria and salmonella continue to be a problem.

The one public policy that is currently off-the-table is the irradiation of all ground meat products. At the same time, irradiation of all ground meat products could significantly reduce the level of food-borne illnesses, especially when coupled with the maintenance of stringent sanitation procedures at processing plants and proper meat handling procedures in restaurants and at home.

The Food and Drug Administration has determined that irradiation is safe and effective in decreasing or eliminating harmful bacteria. But many oppose irradiation because of its connection to the nuclear industry and concerns about the potential for irradiation to negatively change the food it is used to treat.

There are also concerns among those that want their food as natural as possible with minimal processing of any kind. And then there is the cost issue.

From a public policy perspective, those considerations need to be weighed against the ongoing level of illnesses and deaths caused by food-borne pathogens that can be significantly reduced by the use of irradiation, especially by firms that process the largest quantities of meat and other high-risk products.

(Daryll E. Ray holds the Blasingame Chair of Excellence in Agricultural Policy, Institute of Agriculture, University of Tennessee, and is the Director of UT's Agricultural Policy Analysis Center (APAC). (865) 974-7407; Fax: (865) 974-7298; dray@utk.edu; http://www.agpolicy.org. Daryll Ray's column is written with the research and assistance of Harwood D. Schaffer, Research Associate with APAC.)  

Wisconsin Firm Recalls Ground Beef  Due To Possible  E. COLI O157:H7 Contamination;

USDA Press Release (November 24, 2007)

Following on the heels of the May arrival of irradiated Indian mangoes to U.S. shores, the first shipment of irradiated tropical fruit from Thailand arrived into Los Angeles International Airport on Nov. 1st.

Melissa ODell, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agricultures Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said longans and mangoes came in the first air shipment. The first boat carrying fruit from Thailand is expected by late November, she said.

ODell said Pakistan recently signed an agreement that could open the door for irradiated tropical fruit from that country.

Mangoes, mangosteen, longans, lychees, pineapples and rambutan can enter the U.S. from Thailand. Officials are fine-tuning irradiation treatments for pineapples, ODell said. The fruits were cleared for entry in July, but an irradiation facility was approved by the USDA until late October.

Rapibhat Chandarasrivongs, head of the Office of Agricultural Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy, Washington, D.C., said the countrys yellow mango is different than fruit from Mexico and other Latin American countries. The cost is $4-5 per fruit, including airfreight, compared to about $1 each for Mexican fruit. However, he said the oval-shaped yellow mango may find strong demand from Thai restaurants in the U.S.

Better volume of all Thai tropical fruits will begin in March and April of 2008.

TIRUPATI, ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA: Irradiation, the emerging area of meeting global food safety concerns, received a shot in the arm with Ronald F. Eustice, Executive Director of the Minnesota Beef Council, USA, and a nutrition expert working for spreading awareness and mobilising consumer acceptance on irradiated foods, stressing that the technology cannot be wished away.

In his talk delivered at Sri Padmavathi Womenís Degree and PG College here on November 5th after inaugurating the Home Science Association, Mr. Eustice said that the expanding market access had shrunk the distance between the United States and India, besides Mexico, Vietnam, Thailand and other developing countries, and that it was time for the latter to wake up to the reality and reap the benefit by meeting quality norms.

Especially with the rise in Asian and Hispanic population in the USA, which was estimated to rise threefold by the year 2050, he foresaw a great demand for tropical fruits.

ìAs the time is now ripe to market your produce in the USA, adhering to food safety regulations can take your export volume to new heights,î he suggested.  He opined that mango exports from India could touch 1,000-2000 M.T. in the next three years.

Apart from food safety, irradiation would also extend shelf life of food products, he said, adding how Brazil, the largest producer of fruits and vegetables, was losing a whopping 40 per cent of certain produce yield due to non-irradiation. Mr. Eustice, said that 80,000 metric tonnes of spices and 8,000 tonnes ground beef was being irradiated every year in his country. He demonstrated how irradiated blackberry, mushroom, etc., kept under controlled temperature, could remain fresh for days together.

K. Chandralekha, a retired SPMVV professor, pointed out that the technology could be replicated here to salvage the abundant tomato crop and ensure a remunerative price to growers.

Principal C. Swarajyalakshmi presided, while G.K. Geetha Lakshmi, head of Home Science department spoke.

Whereís the Irradiated Beef? International Irradiation Association (iiA) Newsletter (October 2007)

The Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) projects an increase in the country's fruit exports this year as a result of recent breakthroughs achieved by the Philippines in meeting global phytosanitary requirements.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap on Sunday said in meeting global phytosanitary standards to further expand the Philippines' share in the huge global market for mangoes, bananas, pineapples and other high-value commercial crops (HVCCs), the DA expects fruit growers this year to surpass their combined earnings from exports in 2006, which amounted to more than US$ 700 million.

These breakthroughs, he said, include the accreditation of four establishments in Manila that will provide extended hot water dip (EHWD) treatment services for mangoes bound for China, and the signing last July of the Framework Equivalency Work Plan (FEWP) between the DA's Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) and American authorities, that will pave the way for the export of irradiated Philippine fruits and vegetables to the United States.

Yap said the DA is also stepping up efforts to meet stringent phytosanitary requirements in exporting mangoes from Davao del Sur and Luzon to the US, Australia and other countries through extensive field surveys and studies conducted with foreign assistance.

A similar survey funded by Australia was also done in Sarangani.

After Visayas, the USDA survey will cover 27 other provinces in Mindanao,Yap said.

"All of these efforts are expected to further boost our mango exports, which last year amounted to more than US$ 46 million, of which US$ 24 million was in the form of fresh mangoes," he said.

"We continue to pursue initiatives and provide technical and logistics assistance to enable our fruit growers, processors and exporters to comply with global phytosanitary standards, and thus tap huge export potentials," he added.

These include support services for small farmers like such as the distribution of virus-free planting materials, credit, post-harvest and marketing assistance, and the construction of packinghouses; participation in international trade missions and food exhibitions; improving transport of farm goods through the roll-on, roll-off nautical highway system; and tapping bagsakan or drop-off centers and barangay food terminals or BFTs to help fruit growers sell their produce.

For bananas, Yap said the GMA-HVCC Program is targeting a 7.99 percent growth of 7.345 million metric tons (MT) for the year from 6.801 million MT last year.

Mango production, on the other hand, is projected to grow 7.10 percent this year to 984,135 MT, from 918,877 MT in 2006, but its expansion rate would shoot up to 12.49 percent to 1.033 million MT with proper interventions in place, he said.

For pineapples, the DA is projecting production to reach 1.925 million MT in 2007, up by five percent from last year's 1.834 million MT.

The hi-tech and often baffling field of nuclear technology may seem a world away from the poorest developing world farmers and families struggling to make a dollar a day.

Yet nuclear methods applied to agriculture are enabling millions of these farmers to grow more crops and rear healthier livestock. Since most of the world's 854 million hungry people live in rural areas where agriculture is the main livelihood, such technology can have a direct impact on poverty and hunger.

In addition, despite public concern over nuclear technology, such methods have passed rigorous safety checks ñ in fact they increase the safety of food while benefiting the environment.

Since 1964, FAO and the International Atomic Energy Agency have harnessed such technology to help promote food security, through the Vienna-based Joint FAO/IAEA Programme.

ìNuclear technology defies the senses; people cannot touch, smell or feel the material, and this often evokes a fear of such methods,î says Gabriele Voigt, Director of the Agencyís Laboratories at Seibersdorf, outside Vienna, a nerve-centre of research and training.

ìThe irony is that such technology can make food safer and benefit the environment, while ensuring the hungriest are fed. Weíre opening a magic door and the positive impacts are clear.î

Creating better crops

For example, scientists use a method called irradiation to create crop varieties that are more disease-resistant and grow better in poor soils, a massive benefit to countries across drought-prone Africa, where the poorest farmers try to survive on the most marginal lands.

Food also can be made safer through irradiation, which destroys bacteria such as E.coli and salmonella in foods, while leaving no radioactive traces. The safety and effectiveness of this method has been declared by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, an international standards body administered by FAO and the World Health Organization, which comprises government-designated experts.

Irradiation as a post-harvest treatment for horticultural products also benefits the environment ñ it provides a safer alternative to methyl bromide, which the large majority of countries have agreed to phase out by 2010 due to its harmful impact on the ozone layer.

Nuclear techniques can also be used to detect excessive pesticide or veterinary drug residues in food and monitor implementation of good agricultural and veterinary practices.

There are numerous other areas where nuclear technology helps the environment. For example, one technique suppresses, or in some situations even eradicates, insect pests by the systematic release of sterilized males of the species ñ a type of birth control. This reduces the need for chemical pesticides that can harm other organisms and soils. Another example involves a nuclear technique that measures water storage and tracks water and nutrients in soil, reducing wastage of these valuable commodities.

Two agencies better than one

Qu Liang, Director of the Joint Programme, says: ìThis is one of the best examples of effective cooperation between two UN agencies, with a direct combination of agricultural expertise and nuclear science.

ìIn its simplest terms, FAO can provide practical information from the field, for example reporting the effects of soil erosion on crops and ultimately the local people, and the IAEA can apply the scientific expertise on how we might address it.î

The Joint FAO/IAEA Programme works with member countries in researching and introducing new crop varieties, pest treatments or food-testing methods among other things.

It also trains scientists from developing countries each year at its lab at Seibersdorf, near Vienna, who then return to their countries to put appropriate nuclear methods into practice.

Mr Liang adds: ìWe investigate, give advice, guidance and training to international scientists, and help coordinate early efforts to implement work. But it is for countries to take up these projects and maintain them well into the future.

ìWe can generate a lot of interest and political will by showing the potential economic benefits, which helps persuade governments to invest in it.î
Vienna, AustriaóMarch

Hawaii exotic fruit growers may be getting a break, and they say it's about time. Until now, it's been easier for growers in Thailand to ship mangosteen, dragon fruit and Korean melons to the U.S. mainland than for Hawaii farmers.

The U.S. Agriculture Department finally is doing something about the inequity, proposing that the same rule applied to Thailand apply to America's 50th state.

Export would be allowed as long as the fruit is treated with irradiation.

The state has been asking for the change for nearly a decade, because mainland markets bring higher prices.

State agriculture officials say nearly 1.5 million pounds of Hawaii tropical fruit is produced each year, with sales totaling about $2.6 million last year