Quotable Quotes:

"The case of tainted spinach in Salinas Valley fields sets the stage for government and supporters of food irradiation to pick up momentum and the organic food industry to re-examine its policy. If the public is convinced that food irradiation is a good thing, the industry will find a way to deliver it."

Spyros Andreopoulos, Director Emeritus, Office of Communication and Public Affairs, Stanford University Medical Center.

"The CDC has stated that the number of foodborne illnesses could be reduced substantially if irradiation is used to ensure hygienic quality of several types of foods.     With hundreds of thousands of foodborne illnesses and thousand of deaths attributable to foodborne illnesses in the US every year, can we afford to waste any more time in not using the most effective technology available to combat these illnesses and to ensure safety of fresh produce and other foods"?

Paisan Loaharanu, Former Head, Food and Environmental Protection Joint FAO/IAEA Division, Vienna, Austria & Adjunct Professor of Food Safety, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.

"If the E. coli is inside the spinach, there is very little else that you could do to the spinach to destroy the pathogen. Radiation would do that. We were able to irradiate those (vegetables) at high enough levels to kill the microbes and not adversely affect quality."  Anuradha Prakash, Ph.D; Associate Professor of Food Science and Nutrition, Chapman University, Orange, California.

In This Update:

How to avoid tainted produce

Are we paying the price for not using the most effective technology to combat foodborne illnesses?

Editorial: Food irradiation needed to protect consumers

Outbreak provides stage for irradiated produce

Sadex officials defy E.coli bacteria After irradiation, spinach is tasty and healthy

Irradiation in Japan

Big farms will keep spinach on the table

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

How to avoid tainted produce: San Francisco Chronicle (October 23, 2006) By Spyros Andreopoulos: Widespread food poisoning in 24 states from pre-packaged spinach contaminated with E.coli could have been prevented if farmers, especially organic food farmers, used food irradiation, a technology they have systematically opposed.

Although the U.S. food supply is considered among the safest in the world, food- associated illness remains a serious public-health problem. An estimated 76 million cases of food-borne disease are reported in the United States annually, causing more than 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. Creating rich, fertile soil using manure or compost to grow food "organically" may have advantages over synthetic fertilizers, but it is not risk-free and requires preventive measures.

Increased use of food irradiation, according to experts in radiation biology, could reduce food-related disease outbreaks significantly, and increase the availability of a wider variety of foods to the consumer by extending shelf life of perishable foods.

Food irradiation is widely supported by national and international scientific and public-health organizations, and groups involved in food processing and food services. They include the World Health Organization (WHO), the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Trade groups, such as the National Meat Association, the Grocery Manufacturers of America and the National Food Processors Association, also support irradiation.

An example of what food irradiation can accomplish is the widely consumed ground beef, which can harbor the bacterium E.coli 0157:H7, a pathogen. Beef tainted with this form of E.coli can make people ill and even kill. It causes 20,000 illnesses and 500 deaths annually, according to the CDC. Scientists have only known since 1982 that this form of E.coli causes human illness.

To help combat this public-health problem, the FDA in 1997 approved treating red meat products with a measured dose of radiation. The process has drawn praise from food industry and health organizations because it can control E.coli and other disease-causing organisms.

The FDA has evaluated food irradiation safety for 40 years and found the process safe and effective for many foods. Before approving red meat irradiation, the agency, according to an article in the May-June 1997 issue of FDA Consumer, reviewed numerous scientific studies conducted worldwide.

FDA scientists reviewed research on the chemical effects of radiation on meat, the impact on nutrient content and potential toxicity concerns. They concluded that irradiation reduces or eliminates disease causing bacteria, insects and parasites. It reduces spoilage, and, in certain fruits and vegetables, it inhibits sprouting and delays ripening. Also, it does not, as critics claim, make the food radioactive. The small doses of radiation used do not compromise nutritional quality, change food taste or texture and appearance.

In addition to reducing E.coli 0157:H7 contamination, irradiation was found to help control other potentially harmful bacteria. In his book, "Naturally Dangerous: Surprising Facts About Food, Health, and the Environment," James P. Collman, professor of chemistry at Stanford University and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, explains that irradiation kills the bacteria by fracturing their genetic material (DNA) so they cannot multiply.

Collman adds that irradiation was found effective in controlling salmonella and campylobacter, two chief causes of food-related illness. Salmonella, commonly found in poultry, eggs, meat and milk, sickens as many as 4 million people and kills 1,000 a year nationwide. Cambylobacter, found mostly in poultry, is responsible for 6 million illnesses and 75 deaths per year in the United States. Collman is quick to point out, however, that food irradiation complements, but does not replace, proper food handling and required cleanliness practices by producers, processors and consumers.

Although food irradiation, using cobalt-60, electron beams or X-rays,has much going for it and the FDA has labeling requirements in place to inform consumers about irradiated foods, retail food outlets have been slow to carry such foods on their shelves.

National opinion polls have consistently shown that the public considers food irradiation a hazard, invoking images of nuclear accidents, and ignoring that the amount of energy used is not strong enough to budge the meter on a Geiger counter or make food radioactive. In fact, it is no different than radiation now used routinely to sterilize medical products, bandages, contact lens solutions, sutures and surgical gowns, and to check our luggage for explosives before we board an airliner.

But when the USDA proposed regulation five years ago, the Organic Consumers Organization objected, and so did 300,000 misinformed consumers, who wrote letters objecting to the use of irradiation and biotechnology for any food labeled "organic." The USDA ruled that produce could not be labeled "organic" if it had been irradiated. Given the importance of sales and high amount of popular support for organic foods, the Bush administration has found no reason to overturn this rule.

Food irradiation remains an underutilized technology. Some groups that disapprove of irradiation call it expensive. But an initial capital investment to increase its use could be offset by decreased losses in spoilage and epidemics causing expensive product recalls, in addition to significant reductions in health-care costs. Food irradiation could play an important role in a comprehensive strategy to keep our food supply safe, but its public acceptance would depend on public education. Government, physicians and allied health professionals can play important roles in consumer acceptance of food irradiation as they did in an earlier era when the pasteurization of milk was highly contested by ignorance and misinformation.

The case of tainted spinach in Salinas Valley fields sets the stage for government and supporters of food irradiation to pick up momentum and the organic food industry to re-examine its policy. If the public is convinced that food irradiation is a good thing, the industry will find a way to deliver it.

Spyros Andreopoulos is director emeritus of the Office of Communication and Public Affairs at Stanford University Medical Center. The article reflects his personal views. Further information on food irradiation technology is available from UC- Davis, ccr.ucdavis.edu/irr/index.shtml

The recent outbreak of E. coli in spinach grown in California, resulting in some 200 illnesses and 3 deaths in almost 30 states in the USA (as of 10 October) should serve as a reminder to all of us that an effective technology was not used to ensure the safety of fresh produce including spinach in the market place.  Regrettably, the outbreak caused many consumers to avoid fresh produce especially leafy vegetables which provide important sources of nutrients needed to maintain our health.  One country even went as far as banning an import of fresh lettuce grown in California.

The fact is fresh produce has caused more foodborne illnesses than meat and poultry in the past decade.  Many of us will remember major outbreaks implicated by sprouts, lettuce, cantaloupe, and even spinach in recent years.  No one seems to take much notice until the outbreaks became news and then tends to forget about it soon after.  The FDA first issued a safety guideline to produce growers as early as 1998 and sent strong letters to the growers following the outbreaks of E. coli in lettuce in 2004.  We tend to put our high hope to the FDA guidelines and the use of good agricultural practice by the growers to avoid contaminations by various pathogens in fresh produce.  Unfortunately, microbial contamination can come from various sources at various steps in the produce production chain including bird and other animal droppings, manure, flood water, irrigation, sewage, and even human handling, both before and after harvesting.  Washing, both before packaging and consumption, can only reduce but not eliminate contamination in fresh produce.

The current stage of centralized production and distribution of fresh produce makes it difficult for the industry to avoid contamination of fresh produce.  Lettuce or spinach are collected from many fields and processed in a centralized facility using common vats for washing prior to bagging.  Contamination of produce harvested from one field can easily spread to those harvested from others at centralized facilities.  Unfortunately (for consumers), it takes less than 100 cells of some pathogens such as E. coli 0157:H7 to cause illnesses and even deaths.  The situation is similar to centralized production of ground beef, chicken, spices, etc. where contamination can easily spread during processing.

It is unrealistic to attempt to produce beef, chicken, fresh produce or spices free from pathogens except at an enormous cost not affordable by average consumers.  We have to be conscious that food of animal origin as well as fresh produce especially bagged leafy and pre-cut vegetables can be contaminated by pathogens.  Thus, these foods should undergo certain treatments to render them safe for consumption by consumers of all ages in the same manner as milk is normally pasteurized.   While attempts have been made to search for effective methods to ensure microbiological safety of fresh produce, irradiation - a proven safe and effective method for inactivating pathogenic bacteria in any fresh, frozen and dried food, continues to be ignored.  Irradiation has been approved by the FDA as a method to ensure microbiological safety of fresh and frozen meat, poultry, shell eggs, crustaceans and dried food such as spices and vegetable seasoning, and sprouting seeds.  It is used widely to ensure hygienic quality of spices and vegetable seasonings and, to a certain extent, of ground beef and poultry.  In 1986, the FDA approved the use of irradiation of fresh produce only for insect disinfestations and delay physiological growth (such as ripening of fruits, sprout inhibition of roots & tubers, etc.) BUT NOT for pathogen control.  For unclear reasons, the FDA continues to delay the approval of irradiated ready-to-eat food including fresh, pre-cut fruits and vegetables, based on a petition submitted by the National Food Processor Association (NFPA) in 2000.

It is also unrealistic to assume that anyone would attempt to irradiate all of our food supplies in the same manner as no one should contemplate canning or freezing, or drying or fumigating all of our food supplies.  We have to deal with the situation on a case by case basis to assess which technology brings the most benefit to us.  For irradiation, it has been and still is the most effective and most versatile method to ensure hygienic quality of more solid foods (such as meat, seafood, poultry, fresh produce, spices, etc.) in the same manner as thermal pasteurization is for liquid foods, e.g. milk.

The food industry and the FDA must take irradiation seriously to prevent further foodborne illnesses especially those associated with ready-to-eat food including fresh produce.  Ample scientific data show the effectiveness of this technology to combat various pathogens in essentially any type of food including leafy vegetables such as lettuce and spinach.  Irradiation is a safe food process recognized by many national and international health organizations including the World Health Organization (WHO).  There is a Codex General Standard for Irradiated Foods of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (recognized by the World Trade Organization to settle international trade disputes) which endorses irradiation as a safe process for treating any food to achieve technological objective. 

The CDC has stated that the number of foodborne illnesses could be reduced substantially if irradiation is used to ensure hygienic quality of several types of foods.     With hundreds of thousands of foodborne illnesses and thousand of deaths attributable to foodborne illnesses in the US every year, can we afford to waste any more time in not using the most effective technology available to combat these illnesses and to ensure safety of fresh produce and other foods?

Paisan Loaharanu writes from Vienna, Austria. He is Former Head, Food and Environmental Protection Joint FAO/IAEA Division, Vienna, Austria & Adjunct Professor of Food Safety, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.

BALTIMORE - How 104 pigs disappeared from a quarantined Carroll County farm without their owners knowledge is hard to understand. They make a lot of noise. And they do not act like wild mustangs, born to be free. We wonder if, as in the childrens rhyme, those little piggies went to market.

If they did, it means some pigs with trichinosis, a parasitic disease that can cause nausea, diarrhea and sometimes death in humans, could be carved up into pork loin and chops for human consumption. Some pigs from Carroll Schisler Sr.s farm tested positive for the disease this spring, prompting the quarantine.

The small number of pigs means very few people would be exposed to the meat if the pigs made it to a slaughterhouse. And health officials said buying tainted pork is unlikely because it must pass through a United States Department of Agriculture-approved slaughterhouse.

But the farmers of contaminated spinach that sickened at least 187 people and killed one recently supposedly followed government-approved safe agricultural practices.

The best way to prevent tainted meat and produce from reaching market is to irradiate food. Federal law allows meat producers and produce growers to use gamma rays, X-rays or electrons to zap products. Irradiation does not affect taste or nutrition but it kills most bacteria and viruses that make people sick.

Science experts, the World Health Organization and U.S. health agencies say it is safe.

Some activist groups, including Public Citizen, say irradiation wont fix bad farming practices, and try to scare people by saying its not safe. But since it can save lives and prevent entire crops from being banned and businesses from being ruined, its a good idea. Area health departments must champion the practice in public service campaigns. Marylanders deserve safe food.

At a time when most consumers were avoiding spinach for fear that it had been contaminated with E. coli, David Corbin had a heaping helping of the stuff to prove a point.

Corbin, chief executive officer of Fort Worth, Texas-based Sadex Corp., demonstrated his confidence in irradiations ability to kill pathogens Sept. 27 by eating a bowl of spinach inoculated with high levels of E. coli O121:H19. The spinach was inoculated with 5 million to 7 million colonies of E. coli, Corbin said. A fraction of that amount could make someone sick, he said.

The contaminated spinach was irradiated at the companys Sioux City, Iowa, facility before Corbin dug in. The event was conducted under the supervision of Omaha, Neb.-based Midwest Laboratories, tested the spinach for E. coli before and after the irradiation process. "My spinach was really good," Corbin said Oct. 2. "I did not taste any difference, and obviously it worked. I havent been rushed to the hospital."

Irradiation, which is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for phytosanitary control purposes, is not approved for killing the microbes that cause common food borne illnesses like E. coli, salmonella and listeria. Corbin said he hopes his stunt will help spur the FDA to approve the technology.

ROOT CAUSES

This type of demonstration doesnt get to the root of the problem, said Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association, Finland, Minn. Cummins said producers should focus on the root cause of the contamination, which he says usually comes from livestock farming operations polluting irrigation systems. "Its not a good idea to irradiate produce," he said. "Its well known that it destroys the vitamin content and produces dangerous carcinogenic substances."

Christine Bruhn, consumer food marketing specialist at the University of California-Davis, said critics of the technology who are worried about radiation levels shouldnt be too worried. "Any treatment level that doesnt harm the quality of the product is safe to eat," she said.

NO HARM

Radiation, which is typically used on hardier items like Hawaiian-grown sweet potatoes or papayas, likely wouldnt harm the structure of a soft, leafy green like spinach, said Anuradha Prakash, associate professor of food science and nutrition at Chapman University, Orange, Calif. Prakash has studied the irradiation with fresh-cut vegetables, including iceberg and romaine lettuce and cilantro.

"We were able to irradiate those at high enough levels to kill the microbes and not adversely affect quality," Prakash said.

Prakash said that radiation could be particularly effective in a case where the microbes were inside a particular item. "If the E. coli is inside the spinach, there is very little else that you could do to the spinach to destroy the pathogen," she said. "Radiation would do that."

Popeye the Sailor Man would have approved of the green, leafy spinach gobbled up by Sadex Corp. officials early Wednesday morning.

Popeye definitely would not have approved of the spinach if he could have seen it under a microscope before it underwent irradiation -- the spinach contained 5 million colonies of E.coli bacteria per gram.

Officials at the Sadex Corp. irradiated the highly contaminated spinach at the Sioux City plant, 2650 Murray Street. Then they ate it like candy.

"It was very good," Corbin said. "I didn't notice any difference." Harlan Clemmons, president and chief operating officer of the Sadex Corp., agreed with Corbin. "It had a good crunch to it," Clemmons said. "I didn't even have to put much dressing on it."

Although the spinach started the day at 5 million colonies of E.coli bacteria per gram, after irradiation, it had 50 to 70 colonies per gram -- not enough to make humans sick. "That's why Harlan and I were highly confident in our spinach-eating ability," Corbin said.

The Sadex officials performed this spinach-eating feat to demonstrate their confidence in electronic pasteurization (irradiation) technology for ready-to-eat foods. Electron-beam irradiation works on the same principle as a giant television set. Electrons ride across a radio frequency in two beams aimed at the product, killing dangerous microbes.

Irradiation could have prevented recent infections of E.coli bacteria linked to contaminated spinach, executives said. Sadex officials want the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve the application of irradiation for use on ready-to-eat foods such as spinach.

Irradiation technology is used in about 40 countries worldwide. In the United States, the only obstacle preventing irradiation of ready-to-eat foods is the FDA, Sadex officials said.

"Irradiation is a well-known and FDA-approved technology used on animal feed, meat and poultry," Corbin said. "This technology can prevent food-borne illness, and we believe it is a great way to protect the nation's food supply. Had the nation's supply of spinach been irradiated, the most recent E.coli scare could have been minimized." Paul Driskell, managing director of government and regulatory affairs for the Sadex Corp., said the FDA has not approved of irradiation for ready-to-eat foods simply because of "bureaucratic inaction."

There are also consumer misconceptions about irradiation -- that it is not safe or that it zaps the nutrition out of food. That is simply not true, Sadex executives said, and they have mountains of independent research to back up their claims.

As of Wednesday afternoon, neither Corbin nor Clemmons were sick, proving they had as much brains as Popeye had buff.

Journal staff writer Nicole Paseka can be reached at 712-293-4276 or nicolepaseka@siouxcityjournal.com.

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The government's Atomic Energy Commission was cited as approving Tuesday a report by an expert panel that endorses considering the irradiation of pepper, paprika and other spices as a means of disinfecting and killing germs.
The move is in response to a request by the All Nippon Spice Association in 2000 for a permit to irradiate spices. The report said spices may contain bugs or germs and heated sterilization is necessary when they are used for processed foods.

The Food Sanitation Law prohibits irradiating foods except when a permit is given by the health minister. Irradiation is allowed for potatoes to prevent germination.
 

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the government's Food Safety commission are expected to examine the advisability of irradiating spices.

Daniel Akst, a journalist and novelist who writes often about business, writes that the recent outbreak of E. coli in spinach, followed by the precautionary recall of some lettuce as well, has given new impetus to a couple of good ideas.

Critics of modern farming techniques, who contend that food safety problems often result from the practices of agribusiness, have renewed calls for a return to family farms. And critics of the fragmented regulatory system have renewed calls for a single, comprehensive federal watchdog agency to more aggressively oversee food safety.
These are both fine suggestions. Unfortunately, says Akst, history suggests that they may well be mutually exclusive, especially when we all know that what we really need to do is eat more spinach and lettuce, not less.

Like plane crashes that scare people into driving t which is more dangerous than flying t the produce scare could frighten people into doing something more dangerous than eating fresh produce, which is not eating it.

Thats where agribusiness comes in. Small family farms are marvelous but if you expect cheap, safe produce year-round, theres some industrial farming in your future.
 

Akst says that where he lives (and I've made a similar point about Ontario -- dp) farmers in winter mainly grow snow. The need for produce from far away requires bigger producers who can serve many far-flung clients. So does the need for low prices, which are essential if people are to eat spinach rather than, say, fried cookie dough.

Regulation also promotes bigness. Food scares are a regular feature of American history, and they play out in a familiar pattern. The death of innocents is followed by calls for regulation, usually resisted but often eventually embraced by larger producers, after which comes the consolidation of smaller producers who cant cope with the burden.
In his book ÌRevolution at the Table: the Transformation of the American Diet,” Harvey Levenstein, an emeritus professor of history at McMaster University (and cool dude I've done a couple of talk shows with in the past -- dp) chronicles how the rise of food safety regulations t not to mention a rising public demand for ever-safer food t promoted bigness in the food business from 1880 to 1930, a trend that was already being fostered by new technologies and modes of financing.

Mr. Levenstein was quoted as writing, "In Detroit, there were 158 milk dealers when the pasteurization law was passed. Within three months the number declined to 68.” The industry would consolidate much further.

The story says that in its early days, pasteurization, now regarded as a life-saving technology, was controversial; opponents argued that it would compromise the nutritional quality of milk. Similar arguments are made today against a life-saving food technology t irradiation t that has been stymied for years by public fears of anything sounding too nuclear.