The truth about irradiated meat

[Guest guest]

The truth about irradiated meat

 

 

 

CR Quick Take

 

In our tests of more than 500 meat samples from groceries in 60

cities-the largest test of its kind-we found that irradiated beef

and chicken have a slight off-taste and come with the same handling

and cooking instructions as regular meat. So they offer no real

benefit for the careful cook.

 

One advantage: Irradiated meat generally has lower bacteria levels

than regular meat. As such, it may reduce-but not eliminate-the risk

of foodborne illness if your meat is undercooked.

 

 

Irradiation has fueled a debate over how best to improve meat

safety: by more aggressively preventing contamination in the first

place, irradiating possible contaminants in packaged meat,

or some combination of both.

 

 

 

 

In the aftermath of record meat recalls, certain supermarkets and

restaurants are touting something new: irradiated chicken and ground

beef.

Irradiation " eliminates any bacteria that might exist in food, "

according to a Food Emporium supermarket flyer. " You can't taste the

difference, " claims a pamphlet from SureBeam, a leading food

irradiator. " Enjoy with confidence! " says a poster advertising

irradiated double cheeseburgers at a Minneapolis Dairy Queen. Full-

page newspaper ads from Wegmans supermarkets tell customers that

they can cook a juicy irradiated burger " the way they like it "

and " without worrying about safety. "

 

Consumer Reports put claims like those to the test. Our research,

taste tests, and microbial analysis of irradiated and nonirradiated

chicken and ground beef--the largest analysis of its kind on meat

sold at retail--counter many of the assertions:

 

• Bacteria levels in the irradiated, uncooked ground beef and

skinless chicken tenders were generally much lower than levels in

the nonirradiated meat. But the irradiated meat still contained some

bacteria. And, like any meat, irradiated meat can become

contaminated if it is handled improperly. That's why packages carry

the same handling and cooking instructions as nonirradiated meat,

including directions to " cook thoroughly. "

 

• Our trained taste testers noted a slight but distinct off-taste

and smell in most of the irradiated beef and chicken we cooked and

sampled, likening it to singed hair. In the beef, the taste was

detectable even with a bun, ketchup, and lettuce. Because it was

usually subtle, however, some consumers may not notice it.

 

• Irradiated food is safe to eat, according to federal and world

health officials. It certainly does not become radioactive. But a

recent study on the chemical byproducts that irradiation creates in

meat has led some researchers and the European Parliament to call

for further studies.

 

Wal-Mart, the largest food retailer in the U.S., is testing sales of

irradiated meat in Northeast stores and may offer it nationwide.

Some 40 other chains already sell it.

 

Should you buy it? There's no reason to if you cook meat thoroughly.

Irradiation actually destroys fewer bacteria than does proper

cooking.

 

Irradiation may offer added protection if meat is undercooked,

however. Used in institutions such as cafeterias, irradiated meat

could help reduce widespread foodborne illness, some experts

predict. That's worth knowing if you are among those, such as the

immunocompromised, at greatest risk from foodborne illness or if you

want an extra measure of safety.

 

But other experts worry that the way irradiation is being promoted

gives consumers a false sense of security. They say this end-stage

fix also takes the focus off preventing contamination in the first

place. Clearly, much more could be done to clean up unsanitary

conditions at feedlots, slaughterhouses, processors, cafeterias, and

other places where meat is prepared.

 

 

 

 

WHAT IT CAN AND CAN'T DO

 

Irradiation is the process by which food is bombarded with high-

frequency energy capable of breaking chemical bonds. The energy

source is electricity (for electron-beam irradiation) or radioactive

cobalt-60 (for gamma-ray irradiation).

 

Food Technology Service, the nation's largest gamma-ray meat

irradiator, says the energy passes through food much as " a ray of

light passes through a window. " But it is a powerful ray; the

typical irradiation dose for meat, 1.5 kiloGrays, is 15 million

times the energy involved in a single chest X-ray, or 150 times the

dose capable of killing an adult.

 

 

DISCLOSURE Labels on irradiated meat must include the radura, above,

the international symbol for irradiation.

 

 

 

Irradiation works by damaging the DNA of disease-causing bacteria

such as salmonella and the potentially deadly E. coli O157:H7, as

well as of insects, parasites, and some spoilage organisms. They

become " inactive " because they can't reproduce.

 

At approved doses, however, irradiation doesn't wipe out all

bacteria in meat. Much higher doses would be needed to do that, but

higher doses are not used because they would significantly degrade

the taste of the food. And irradiation is ineffective against

prions, the infectious proteins thought to cause mad-cow disease,

because prions contain no DNA.

Irradiated meat generally harbors far fewer bacteria than

nonirradiated meat, so there is less chance it would make you sick

if it were not cooked thoroughly. And experts say there would be

fewer germs in drippings that could contaminate other foods from,

say, a cutting board. But irradiated meat doesn't protect against

other food-handling problems. It offers no added safeguards if it is

stored improperly, handled with dirty hands, or tainted from the

drippings of some other contaminated food.

 

 

 

 

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE NOW

 

Federal regulators are paying attention to irradiation because the

kinds of organisms it targets in meats are the nation's biggest food

health threat. Last year, producers recalled a record 57 million

pounds of meat, including ground beef, poultry, and deli meats,

because of potentially deadly bacterial contamination. The Food and

Drug Administration is considering a petition to approve irradiation

for seafood such as clams and for ready-to-eat foods like deli

meats, precooked beef patties, and hot dogs.

 

The government considers irradiation so effective that it allows

tainted ground beef that otherwise would be unlawful to sell, such

as meat containing E. coli O157:H7, to be irradiated and sold to

consumers.

 

That meat safety needs improving is a given. But irradiation has

stoked the debate over how best to do it.

 

On the one hand, widespread meat irradiation could appreciably

reduce food-borne illnesses, says Dr. Robert Tauxe, a medical

epidemiologist and chief of the Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases

Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

 

In a study published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases in

June 2001, he estimated that irradiating half of all ground beef,

poultry, pork, and processed meat would prevent 900,000 cases of

foodborne infection, 8,500 hospital admissions, 6,000 grave

illnesses, and 350 deaths in the U.S. each year, assuming that those

foods are the source of half of campylobacter, E. coli O157:H7,

listeria, salmonella, and toxoplasma infections.

 

Such reductions would amount to 6 percent of foodborne illnesses

reported each year. The rest of those illnesses can be attributed to

other foods, like eggs and seafood, or other problems, such as

improper food storage.

 

By contrast, the CDC says 20 percent of foodborne outbreaks are

caused simply by commercial food preparers' poor hygiene, such as

failing to wash hands before touching food. The Department of

Agriculture reported eliminating 99.9 percent of E. coli O157:H7 in

spiked beef samples with a low-tech step: spraying beef with lactic

acid, a food preservative with antimicrobial properties, before

grinding.

 

" It's better to take steps to avoid contaminating food to begin with

than it is to try to clean it up afterwards, " says Carol Tucker

Foreman, director of the Food Policy Institute of the Consumer

Federation of America and former assistant secretary of the

USDA. " But I'm afraid it's human nature not to spend money to change

the way animals are raised, or have a trained workforce in

meatpacking plants, or upgrade facilities if they can just irradiate

food at the end of the line. "

 

That debate is being played out throughout the country:

 

School lunches. Beginning in January, the USDA says each school

district will have the option of ordering irradiated ground beef for

its school lunch program.

 

Want a flyer with that burger?

 

 

 

Since its introduction in major supermarkets such as Food Emporium,

Giant Food, Publix, and ShopRite, along with restaurants including

Dairy Queen and Embers America, irradiated ground beef has been the

subject of marketing blitzes.

 

 

Two years ago, the Bush administration proposed allowing irradiated

poultry and ground beef into the federal school lunch program

instead of requiring that meat be tested for salmonella. That

proposal triggered such resistance that the USDA scrapped the plan

and banned irradiated foods from the program, which serves 28

million public-school lunches each day. But a provision in the Farm

Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 directed the USDA to drop

its restrictions, while continuing salmonella testing.

To garner support, the USDA has awarded $151,000 to the Minnesota

Department of Children, Families, and Learning to test the

effectiveness of sending irradiation-information kits to parents in

several school districts.

 

Meanwhile, the school board of Berkeley, Calif., became one of the

first to pass a resolution explicitly prohibiting the purchase of

irradiated foods for its schools. Its Nov. 6 resolution noted that

there had been " no long-term health and side-effect studies on

humans. "

 

Foodborne illness in schools has been a recurring problem. Schools

reported roughly 24 outbreaks of foodborne illness each year between

1973 and 1997, according to research reported in the Pediatric

Infectious Disease Journal in July 2002. During that time, 50,000

students were sickened, 1,500 were hospitalized, and 1 child died,

says the CDC's Tauxe, who adds that the numbers are probably an

underestimate.

 

" Many of these illnesses should be preventable by making sure the

foods are prepared following the usual food-safety guidelines, "

Tauxe says. " The risk would be further reduced by broader

application of irradiation. "

 

The problem is that food safety isn't being adequately addressed.

Only one-third of some 800 school food-service directors surveyed in

March 2003 by the American School Food Service Association said they

have programs that detail where contamination might occur and

provide systems to prevent it. That finding prompted the group to

ask Congress for money to create such safety systems.

 

Health. Between 1964 and 1992, three United Nations agencies,

including the World Health Organization, convened five expert

committees to evaluate studies on the safety of consuming irradiated

foods. Each found the foods to be safe.

 

Recent European research, however, suggests that the substances

known as 2-alkylcyclobutanones, unique byproducts created by

irradiating fat in a food such as ground beef, may act as tumor

promoters in laboratory rats. Authors of the report, released last

fall by Germany's Federal Research Centre for Nutrition in

Karlsruhe, say their findings show the need for further study.

Meanwhile, the European Parliament in December halted new approvals

of irradiated foods going to member nations of the European Union

pending more safety studies.

 

The research was brought to the attention of the FDA by the

Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit consumer groups Public Citizen and

the Center for Food Safety. The FDA is reviewing the research, says

George Pauli, the agency's associate director for science and policy.

 

 

 

 

WILL THE MARKET DECIDE?

 

Until the recent marketing blitz for irradiated meat, irradiated

food was a nonissue for consumers. For decades the government has

allowed certain foods to be irradiated, including wheat and flour,

to control insects, and white potatoes, to inhibit sprouting. Since

1985, the government has approved irradiation of spices, fruits,

vegetables, pork, and poultry. In 1997 irradiation was OK'd for

beef, and in 2000 for fresh eggs.

 

But it has rarely been used on foods in the U.S., in part because of

concerns that consumers wouldn't buy irradiated products. Indeed,

when irradiated beef was introduced three years ago in groceries, it

was withdrawn because of poor sales.

 

Today, irradiated beef accounts for less than 5 percent of the 9

billion pounds of ground beef produced annually in the U.S., says

the American Meat Institute Foundation, a nonprofit meat industry

group. (Irradiated frozen chicken was introduced this winter only in

Publix stores; the company would not disclose sales.) In some stores

irradiated meat is somewhat more expensive than nonirradiated meat.

In others, the prices are comparable.

 

The labeling of irradiated meat is a subject of debate. Currently,

packages of irradiated meat must be marked with the radura, the

international symbol of irradiation, and with words such as " treated

with irradiation. "

 

But " electronic pasteurization, " a term favored by some irradiators,

might also be allowed because the 2002 Farm Act broadens the

definition of pasteurization and allows anyone to petition the FDA

for alternative labeling of irradiated food.

 

Restaurant patrons and parents may find themselves even more

confused. While some restaurants are promoting their use of

irradiated meat, no federal regulation requires restaurants or

school cafeterias to disclose that they serve it.

 

http://www.consumerreports.org/main/detailv2.jsp?CONTENT%3C%

3Ecnt_id=322725 & FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=162689 & bmUID=1057779417518