(Organic Slant) FDA has approved irradiation of meat and poultry and allows its use for a variety of other foods, including fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, and spices. The agency determined that the process is safe and effective in decreasing or eliminating harmful bacteria.

Irradiation is just another reason to choose organic food.

Food irradiation (the application of ionizing radiation to food) is a technology that improves the safety and extends the shelf life of foods by reducing or eliminating microorganisms and insects. Like pasteurizing milk and canning fruits and vegetables, irradiation can make food safer for the consumer.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for regulating the sources of radiation that are used to irradiate food. FDA approves a source of radiation for use on foods only after it has determined that irradiating the food is safe.

HOW FOOD IRRADIATION WORKS

Food irradiation is physical means of food treatment comparable to heat pasteurization, canning or freezing. The process involves exposing food, either packaged or in bulk, to one of three types of ionizing energy: gamma rays, machine generated electrons or X-rays. This is done in a special processing room or chamber for a specified duration. The most common source of gamma rays for food processing is the radioisotope cobalt 60. Food is treated by cobalt 60 gamma rays in a facility known as an irradiator.

Gamma energy is electromagnetic radiation of very short wavelength, similar to ultraviolet (UV), visible and infra-red light, microwaves and radio waves used for communication. We use these forms of energy for a wide range of purposes; for example, to cook food in microwave ovens.

Food irradiation employs a particular form of electromagnetic energy known as “ionizing radiation.” This term is used to describe these rays because they cause whatever material they contact to produce electrically charged particles called “ions.”

In particular circumstances, ionizing radiation is a very effective and useful food processing technique.

Cobalt 60’s gamma energy can penetrate food, and just like cooking, canning or freezing causes small, harmless molecular changes to the food. Essentially, the energy simply passes through the food being treated, but unlike chemical treatments, leaves no residue. Irradiation is called a “cold process” because it does not significantly increase the temperature of the foods being processed. Irradiated food products can be shipped, stored, or eaten immediately after treatment.

Irradiation works by disrupting the organic processes that lead to food decay. In their interaction with water and other molecules that make up food, gamma rays, X-rays or electrons are absorbed by the molecules they contact. In the process, microbial cells, such as bacteria, yeasts and moulds are broken down, and parasites, insects or their eggs and larvae are either killed or made sterile.

Why Irradiate Food?

Irradiation can serve many purposes.

• Prevention of Foodborne Illness – irradiation can be used to effectively eliminate organisms that cause foodborne illness, such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli (E. coli).
• Preservation – irradiation can be used to destroy or inactivate organisms that cause spoilage and decomposition and extend the shelf life of foods.
• Control of Insects – irradiation can be used to destroy insects in or on tropical fruits imported into the United States. Irradiation also decreases the need for other pest-control practices that may harm the fruit.
• Delay of Sprouting and Ripening – irradiation can be used to inhibit sprouting (e.g., potatoes) and delay ripening of fruit to increase longevity.
• Sterilization – irradiation can be used to sterilize foods, which can then be stored for years without refrigeration. Sterilized foods are useful in hospitals for patients with severely impaired immune systems, such as patients with AIDS or undergoing chemotherapy. Foods that are sterilized by irradiation are exposed to substantially higher levels of treatment than those approved for general use.

How Is Food Irradiated?

There are three sources of radiation approved for use on foods.

• Gamma rays are emitted from radioactive forms of the element cobalt (Cobalt 60) or of the element cesium (Cesium 137).
  Gamma radiation is used routinely to sterilize medical, dental and household products and is also used for the radiation treatment of cancer.
• X-rays are produced by reflecting a high-energy stream of electrons off a target substance (usually one of the heavy metals) into food. X-rays are also widely used in medicine and industry to produce images of internal structures.
• Electron beam (or e-beam) is similar to X-rays and is a stream of high-energy electrons propelled from an electron accelerator
  into food.

High Amounts of Radiation Used To “Pasterize” Your Food

 The level of gamma radiation used starts at 1 kiloGray (equivalent to 2,500,000 chest x-rays (40 millirems each) or 166 times a human lethal dose (5 Grays)) and goes all the way up to 30 kiloGray (75,000,000 chest x-rays or 4,980 times a human lethal dose).  The following table is a list of foods that are increasingly being “nuked” for your protection.

What Foods Have Been Approved for Irradiation?

FDA has approved a variety of foods for irradiation in the United States including:

• Beef and Pork
• Poultry
• Molluscan Shellfish
• (e.g., oysters, clams, mussels, and scallops)
• Shell Eggs
• Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
• Lettuce and Spinach
• Spices and Seasonings
• Seeds for Sprouting (e.g., for alfalfa sprouts)

STATUS OF FOOD IRRADIATION REGULATIONS IN THE US

How Will I Know if My Food Has Been Irradiated?

FDA requires that irradiated foods bear the international symbol for irradiation. Look for the Radura symbol along with the statement “Treated with radiation” or “Treated by irradiation” on the food label. Bulk foods, such as fruits and vegetables, are required to be individually labeled or to have a label next to the sale container. FDA does not require that individual ingredients in multi-ingredient foods (e.g., spices) be labeled.

It is important to remember that irradiation is not a replacement for proper food-handling practices by producers, processors and consumers. Irradiated foods need to be stored, handled and cooked in the same way as non-irradiated foods, because they could still become contaminated with disease-causing organisms after irradiation if the rules of basic food safety are not followed.

Labeled, or not, irradiated food is exposed to the same ionizing gamma radiation that destroyed life in Hiroshima, Chernobyl and now Fukushima. “Primitive” life forms like microbes refuse to ingest irradiated food (which is why we use it), but humans are gullible enough to believe industry pundits and governmental “authorities” like the USDA and FDA, who say doses of radiation applied to your food up to and quite close to a billion chest x-rays worth of ionizing radiation is safe for human consumption.

Is Your Health “Collateral Damage” In The War Against Food Perishability?

Despite the irresponsible promotion of this process as safe, food irradiation destroys much of the vitamin content of food, produces a number of toxic byproducts: formaldehyde, benzene, and formic acid, as well as unique radiolytic products, e.g. 2-alklycyclobutanoes, that have been demonstrated to be cytotoxic (damages cells), genotoxic (damages DNA), and carcinogenic (causes cancer) in test tube and animal studies. (View peer-reviewed research on gamma irradiation here).

Also, gamma radiation is capable of increasing the allergenicity of food proteins such as milk by denaturing them, and this side effect was found to occur, ironically, even at low radiation doses.

How is it, then,  that a process that is so obviously detrimental to human health is allowed?