May 2005
Food Irradiation Update is published by the Minnesota Beef Council

Two Mexican Irradiation Plants to Open; Government Will Help Fund Facilities

Technology Round Up: Innovations in Microbial Interventions

First Food Irradiation Park Set Up by the Government of Haryana

MDS Nordion Introduces new Quadura Food Irradiation System

City teen battling E. coli bug

Despite E. Coli, Peters' still a favourite

Two Mexican irradiation plants to open; government will help fund facilities:

By Rupal Gor, Staff Writer

The opening of two plants in Mexico will allow mangoes and other commodities to be treated through irradiation.

"It's not going to take the place of hot water treatment, but will be used as an alternate for controlling the fruit fly," said George Mendez, owner of G. Mendez & Co. Inc., Nogales, Ariz., and chairman of Fresh Produce Association of the Americas' mango division.

Construction of these two plants will be in San Luis Potosi and Jalisco, said Arved Deecke, chief executive officer of Phytosan SA de CV, Guadalajara, Mexico.

With the help of growers associations, the plants should be up and running in March 2006.

Deecke said irradiation is more cost-effective than hot water treatment. The Mexican government will help fund the facilities through the associations. The two plants, he said, will have a capacity of 200,000 metric tons a year.

Irradiation isn't fast enough to process the entire volume of mangoes, said Rodrigo Diaz, vice president of Diazteca Co., Nogales. He also said it would cost $7-9 million for one facility.

He said the facilities would treat only five loads a day, which isn't a lot compared to Diazteca's 15 to 20 loads a day.

"I know it's a great option to get rid of the hot water treatment because you will increase the shelf-life of the product," Diaz said. "And it doesn't damage the quality like the hot water treatment does."

Wade Shiba, president of G-M Super Sales Co. Inc., Hidalgo, Texas, said mangoes weren't taking hot water treatment well because of their delicate skin.

"Hopefully the quality could be pretty decent," Shiba said.

Deecke said irradiation is more economical and better for products going through it. For instance, salmonella is a problem in hot water treatment, whereas it wouldn't be introduced with irradiation.

"One problem with the hot water dipping is that there's always potential for salmonella in the hot water tanks," he said.

Irradiation will kill bacteria and won't damage the quality and ripeness of the fruit like other treatments do, Deecke said. Hot water treatment accounts for the loss of 25% of the quality of fruit, he said.

Other advantages of irradiation are extensive shelf life and the assistance in the food and safety realm, Mendez said.

He said Cobalt 60 is the source of radiation that will sterilize fruits. Cobalt 60 is used in sterilizing medical gowns and instruments, and this system of sterilization will be used to process fruits and vegetables.

"I understand that papayas out of Hawaii have been treated with irradiation for a while, and it has been very successful," Mendez said.

Technology Round Up: Innovations in Microbial Interventions; Food Safety Magazine: (April/May 2005) By Julie Larson Bricher

Forgive the pun, but there are some killer microbial intervention technologies on the market that are of keen interest to the food industry. The number of commercially available thermal, non-thermal, antimicrobial chemical and other novel treatments applied to foods and/or food-contact surfaces designed to inhibit, reduce or inactivate microorganisms has never been greater- or more in demand by food manufacturing operations.

What has driven a surge in the development and availability of new and improved interventions? Certainly, part of the answer is that regulatory, industry and research institutions have formed a strong partnership supporting the use of quantitative microbial risk assessments to identify critical points within the food chain at which effective interventions will have the greatest impact on reducing foodborne illness. Several of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) more recent industry guidelines, directives and proposed rules reflect this unified push to apply intervention technologies to improve food safety. FDA's 2004 Produce Safety Action Plan, for example, identifies as part of the agency's objectives the promotion of risk assessments to identify with industry the microbial interventions that will be most effective in produce operations.

Similarly, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) interim final rule on the control of Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products (Directive 10,240.4) provides incentives for RTE producers to use post- lethality treatments, antimicrobials ingredients at formulation and other intervention technologies to significantly reduce the risk of the presence or growth of Listeria on these products. And, industry has been vocal in expressing its desire that new intervention strategies receive expedited regulatory agency review, as companies search for viable options that will improve their ability to prevent, control and eliminate undesirable microorganisms through HACCP, GMP and other food safety programs.

As Food Safety Magazine's editors have traveled the country this year, we've been introduced to several innovative, new or improved technologies and systems designed for use as part of the multi-hurdle intervention approach to food safety. Here, we'll highlight intervention systems as a quick guide to the latest advances in this important area of food safety. Beginning in 1990, FDA approved irradiation (ionizing radiation) treatments as a safe and effective microbial reduction method for categories including spices, poultry and eggs, red meats, ground beef, seafood, sprouts, and fruits and vegetables. Currently, FDA is considering adding RTE meats, including hot dogs, deli ham and turkey and bologna, to the list of foods that can be treated with ionizing radiation. Earlier this year, USDA researchers with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Food Safety Intervention Technologies Research Unit reported that there may be other benefits to using this non-thermal method, which inactivates pathogens, parasites and spoilage organisms by destroying or damaging their cell membranes.

In studies on the use of irradiation to eliminate Listeria monocytogenes from RTE meats, the USDA researchers found that certain common food additives, such as a combination of acetic acid salts and lactic acid in bologna formulations, make Listeria more sensitive to radiation, thus allowing a significant reduction the dose of radiation needed to inactivate the pathogen to maintain product quality attributes. The researchers noted that the combined treatments also prevented growth of spoilage microorganisms for two months in some RTE meats. "Ionizing radiation, when combined with common food additives, has the potential to significantly reduce the incidence of listeriosis associated with consumption of RTE meats in the US," concluded the scientists.

Commercially available irradiation technologies, such as gamma processing technology pioneer MDS Nordion's Centurion and Sterigenics' electron beam, gamma and X-ray processing technologies are well established as effective microbial interventions, from receiving through processing to post-packaging applications. Given the findings of this new research, the food industry will likely see some enhancements of irradiation technologies and systems to incorporate additional things like food additives.

First Food Irradiation Park Set Up by The Government of Haryana State (May 4, 2005) The Government of Haryana has set up the first food irradiation park in the country in Bahalgarh, with an outlay of Rs20 crore. Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister, inaugurated the park on 1 May 2005. The park will provide gamma irradiation treatment to increase shelf life of agricultural products.

The Government is investing Rs280 crore in setting up a horticulture market and cold storage chain in the state. It is also working on a mega food park project to be set up with financial assistance from the Government of India.

The Ministry of Food Processing, Government of India, has provided the financial assistance, and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, technical assistance to the park.

MDS Nordion introduces new Quadura food irradiation system (May 11, 2005)
From a press release via FSNET
OTTAWA -- System designed to address quarantine security requirements and
continued concerns around food safety MDS Nordion introduced today the Quadura(TM) system, a new pallet food irradiator that is designed for importers and exporters of exotic fruits and vegetables. The system provides an economical and environmentally friendly disinfestation treatment to satisfy the quarantine security requirements of international markets.

"Most tropical fruits cannot be treated by conventional methods and irradiation affords a new treatment for these fruits and an opportunity for many countries, particularly developing countries, to expand their export markets," said Dr. Ralph Ross, former Deputy Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Agricultural Research Service and Deputy Director of Science and Technology in USDA-APHIS-PPQ. "Irradiation is an alternative to methyl bromide, the universal chemical fumigant now under international regulatory scrutiny. The new Quadura irradiator represents the most advanced system available for these purposes." "Export markets are critical to the long-term growth of the fruit industry in the Philippines," said Dr. Hernani Golez, Director of the Bureau of Plant Industry for the Philippine government. "We need to take advantage of the newest technology in order to provide a high quality product that meets stringent import regulations in these markets, and do it in a cost-effective manner to maintain competitiveness." The Quadura systems' design features four stations that can independently process pallets of food. This allows growers and processors to administer multiple pallet-specific treatment doses simultaneously to fruit, vegetables, meat and poultry to eliminate quarantine pests and pathogens while guaranteeing product quality and maintaining continuous processing operations. Fully automated, the Quadura's full pallet processing will maximize operational flexibility, reduce downtime and achieve operational efficiency. "Quadura's patented technology enables growers to irradiate a variety of produce already packaged on pallets, the standard packaging and transportation system for fruit," says John Corley, Senior Vice President, Ion Technologies at MDS Nordion. "Seamless integration of the Quadura system into the packaging and transportation process will reduce product handling, which can damage fruit, and decreases costs associated with current disinfestation techniques."

At the same time, with rising concerns about the safety of the food supply, the Quadura system answers the demand for additional food-safety assurance by eliminating food-borne pathogens such as E. coli and Listeria in meat, poultry and other foods.

As business grows, the Quadura system is scalable and can be configured for a wide range of processing scenarios without compromising performance. This flexibility makes the system cost-effective for a variety of businesses, from exotic fruit and vegetable exporters that would process from 200 to 300 million pounds of product annually, to small or midsize meat processors who would typically process less than 50 million pounds each year. It is based on the same leading edge irradiation technology that MDS Nordion has used to design and build more than 120 irradiators in over 45 countries around the world. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has endorsed irradiation as an effective means of preventing food-borne illness and reducing post-harvest losses caused by spoilage, infestation and contamination. These losses affect an estimated 25% of all food produced worldwide. An October 2002 ruling by the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) allows irradiated fruits and vegetables to be imported into the United States. Extensively studied for more than 40 years, food irradiation is endorsed by the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association and the American Dietetic Association as safe and effective.

City teen battling E. coli bug; (May 6, 2005)The Calgary Sun via FSNET; By Pablo Fernandez:
Doctors have, according to this story, done what they can for 15-year-old Sara Burgess, who contracted E.coli after the family visited Peters' Drive-In on April 24 and is now fighting for her life with family keeping vigil at her hospital bedside.
Mother Linda was quoted as saying her condition worsened steadily and she was hospitalized last Saturday, adding, "Then her kidneys shut down, she had to be put on dialysis and she's got a lot of tubes in her. She's in a lot of pain. She's pretty scared and she's angry."
Linda was further quoted as saying about the trip to Peter's that, "We only went there because of her birthday and she wanted something special. She wanted a milkshake."
Sara had the marshmallow milkshake that health officials believe is behind an outbreak of E.coli in the city.

A Calgary Health Region spokesman was cited as saying there are now 10 confirmed E. coli cases in the city with three more suspected.

Linda was further cited as saying the public fails to realize how serious such an outbreak really can be, adding, "People don't realize how all this is affecting the people who have gotten ill. My daughter is sick; she's in hospital and on dialysis."

Despite E. Coli, Peters' still a favourite; (May 6, 2005) The Calgary Herald via FSNET:
Not many restaurants could, according to this editorial, survive the outbreak of an E. coli infection without serious damage to business. But many Calgarians have likely had the opposite reaction to the news that Peters' Drive-In had a minor outbreak. Long-term residents have been loyal customers since the restaurant opened in 1962 by Dutch immigrant Gus Pieters, and it never takes long for recent arrivals to be informed by friends of the good value at the distinctive '50s-era styled drive-thru.
The editorial says that loyalty will only be reinforced by the restaurant's swift response and voluntary closure to an E. coli outbreak this week.

Irradiated Foods Booklet Provides Science-based Information on Food Irradiation: The American Council on Science & Health booklet on irradiated foods can be downloaded from: www.acsh.org/publications/booklets/irradiated2003.html <http://www.acsh.org/publications/booklets/irradiated2003.html> .

For more information on food irradiation go to http://www.mnbeef.org/

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Ronald F. Eustice
Executive Director
Minnesota Beef Council
2950 Metro Drive # 102
Bloomington, MN 55425
USA
Phone: 952/854-6980
Fax: 952/854-6906
E-mail: ron@mnbeef.org
Website: www.mnbeef.org