Nuking Our Food: Irradiation Heats Up

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Family-Health News

Nuking Our Food: Irradiation Heats Up

 

Food IrradiationThe history of food is the story of the struggle to preserve it.

From salt and smoke to refrigeration and pasteurization, human ingenuity has

cooked up a full menu of strategies to save our supper for another day. The

latest technology to be dished out is food irradiation, a method that's back on

our plates with word of a new FDA ruling that allows iceberg lettuce and spinach

to be treated with radiation to prevent e. coli.

 

Food producers like irradiation because it's an easy and relatively inexpensive

way to prevent spoilage and allow food to travel farther and last longer. Though

it sounds like a futuristic technology, food irradiation dates to the earliest

days of the 20th century, when scientists received the first patent for a food

preservation process that used radiation to kill bacteria hidden in food.

 

Today's food irradiation techniques operate on the same principle but use modern

sources of radioactivity like electron radiation similar to that created by tube

TVs, gamma radiation from cesium or cobalt, and X-rays like those used in

medicine but millions of times more powerful. When food is exposed to these

types of radiation any microbes, insects, viruses, and other pathogens it is

carrying are destroyed while the food itself remains non-radioactive.

 

Food companies that use the technology say it is safe for consumers and good for

public health. Critics of food irradiation hold a decidedly different opinion.

In their view, the technology is being used to cover up unwholesome products

produced by an out-of-balance industrial food chain. They also point to research

that's discovered a variety disturbing things about irradiated foods.

 

Here's what you need to know:

 

• According to the Center for Food Safety, research has shown that irradiation

dramatically lowers the nutritional content of foods & #8213;in some cases by

nearly 100%. For example, up to 80% of the vitamin A in eggs and up to 95% of

the lutein in green beans is destroyed by the process.

 

• Evidence provided by the Organic Consumers Association finds that irradiation

creates new compounds in foods. These by-products can include carcinogens like

benzene and toluene; innumerable free radicals, which damage healthy cells; and

" unique radiolytic compounds, " which don't occur naturally in food and many of

which have been found to cause gene mutations.

 

• According to Public Citizen and the Center for Food Safety, one such family of

compounds, 2-alkylcyclobutanones, has never been seen by science before and is

believed to occur only in irradiated fatty foods.

 

• Numerous studies cited by Public Citizen and the Center for Food Safety have

uncovered serious problems with animal diets containing irradiated foods. The

ingestion of these foods has been linked to cancer, reproductive difficulties,

birth defects, internal bleeding, chromosome damage, organ damage, vitamin

deficiencies, and other effects.

 

Here's what you can do to keep irradiated foods off your table:

 

• Understand food irradiation labeling laws: The FDA requires the labeling of

whole, unprocessed irradiated foods but not packaged foods that contain

irradiated ingredients. For example, if irradiated onions are used in a can of

chili, this fact probably won't be mentioned on the can's label. But if those

same onions are sold raw in the produce department, their package or display

must say " Treated With Irradiation " and be marked with the Radura symbol (see

picture above). These regulations do not apply to restaurants, schools,

hospitals and other institutions, which can serve irradiated foods without

notice.

 

• Be aware that the FDA has proposed changing these regulations so that only

those irradiated foods that are " materially changed " by the irradiation process

would be labeled. The agency is also suggesting that labeling language replace

all references to irradiation with the terms " cold pasteurized " or

" electronically pasteurized. " 7Gen will keep its readers advised of any changes

to irradiation regulations.

 

• Buy organic. According to federal standards, organically-produced foods cannot

be irradiated.

 

• Buy locally-produced foods at co-ops, farmers markets and other " home-grown "

outlets. Given the specialized facilities needed to irradiate food, these are

unlikely to be treated.

 

• Avoid processed foods, which can contain irradiated ingredients without

stating so on their labels.

 

• Inspect labels and supermarket displays carefully. The labeling of irradiated

foods can legally occur in very fine print.

 

• Buy organic and/or " natural " herbs and spices in bulk from reputable natural

food suppliers. Conventional herbs and spices are often irradiated and a

loophole in the law allows them to go unlabeled. Teas are also exempt from

labeling.

 

For more information about irradiated food visit the Center for Food Safety and

Public Citizen, which maintains excellent fact sheets on irradiation's problems

and the existing scientific research. Click here for a good overview of food

irradiation regulations.

 

 

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