Tainted food kills 9,000 Americans each year. So why isn't the federal government pushing for the purification of red meat by irradiating it - exposing it to low-level radiation?
As it happens, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, spurred by a recent case of food poisoning on the West Coast that killed four people and hospitalized 175 others, has asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize irradiation of hamburger and similar meats. Isomedix, a New Jersey firm specializing in the technique, has put in a formal petition. After the usual rigmarole, the FDA is expected to approve the process next year. Meanwhile, the USDA warns that bacterial contamination will continue to be a "time bomb": Incredibly, current inspection methods, which rely on sensory observations, can't spot E. coli and other dangerous bugs.So perhaps irradiation actually will become the norm in one industry. But don't count on it. Consider the sad case of the poultry industry, for which the FDA approved the process in 1990.
A major reason the poultry industry shunned irradiation - which would knock out notorious salmonella - is the public's abiding fear of the very word "radiation." With poultry's market share on the rise relative to red meat, why start shooting chickens with spooky-sounding gamma rays?
But scientists agree that food irradiation, already used to purify and extend the shelf life of wheat, spices and several other edibles, is harmless to humans. Radiation can kill organisms but it cannot make objects "radioactive" - any more than lamp light can make people glow after the switch is off. Scripps Howard News Service reports that 36 countries, including most of Europe, already irradiate meat and poultry, with no reported increase in the number of two-headed Frenchmen.
A century ago, as bacteria-ridden milk and ice cream were felling thousands of Americans, along came pasteurization. Ruled by irrational fears, the public took 50 years to accept this disease-fighting process.
Now, government and consumer groups could strike a blow for public health by spreading the good word about pasteurization's heir, irradiation.