(US) Irradiated ground beef goes mainstream

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http://www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/365839p-2956924c.html

 

Health & Science: Irradiated ground beef goes

mainstream

 

2002

Scripps Howard News Service

 

By ANN MERRILL, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

 

(April 17, 2002 5:21 p.m. EDT) - If irradiated ground

beef sounds a bit spooky, a bit futuristic, think

again.

 

You already might be eating it.

 

Two years after its national debut in Minneapolis

grocery stores, irradiated ground beef is available at

thousands of supermarkets across the country. And in a

move that could open the irradiation floodgates in the

$115 billion fast-food industry, Edina, Minn.-based

International Dairy Queen has begun testing it at two

Minnesota stores.

 

" This is historic, " said Ron Eustice, executive

director of the Minnesota Beef Council. " In two short

years, we've grown from the zero to the point now

where irradiated ground beef is expanding rapidly...

.. "

 

The growing availability of irradiated ground beef

gives many consumers confidence the burgers they cook

medium rare on the back-yard grill won't make them

sick and that the burgers slung by a teenage cook at a

fast-food joint are safe.

 

Although opponents of irradiation, which kills

bacteria, continue to question its safety, the process

has received all the necessary government approvals

and the support of several health organizations.

 

And a growing number of companies are betting that one

day irradiated ground beef will be as common as

pasteurized milk. Hungry for growth and increased

sales, they see irradiation as a way to improve the

safety, reputation and shelf life of their products.

 

Mary Lynne Cox, owner of the Dairy Queen in

Hutchinson, Minn., agreed to be one of two national

test sites for irradiated ground beef, which arrives

at her store as frozen patties. " Anything I can do to

feed my customers a healthy product makes sense, " she

said.

 

It's close to noon at her Cox's Dairy Queen on Main

Street. Senior citizens, workers, and mothers with

young children filed in for lunch. Those buying

burgers said they have few qualms about the ground

beef.

 

" I was aware of (irradiation), but I don't have a

problem with it. I had a burger here yesterday, too, "

said Craig Schmeling.

 

Although restaurants are not required by law to inform

consumers that they're using irradiated ground beef,

many, including the two Dairy Queens, do.

 

Dairy Queen spokesman Dean Peters said there has been

very little negative reaction. Sales at the two stores

actually have gone up, driven in part by recent

promotions, he said.

 

The company is taking a crawl-before-you-run approach

to irradiated burgers, Peters said. " We're considering

expanding to six or eight stores around the area, but

have not made any rollout decisions " for the chain's

nearly 6,000 stores, he said.

 

Elsewhere, most food-service operators generally have

not sought much attention about the use of irradiated

ground beef. They're unsure of consumer reaction: Will

customers, suspicious of irradiation, shun - or worse

yet, picket - their business? Or will guests applaud

the move as an effort at improving food safety?

 

Ground beef processors, whether they sell irradiated

meat to food-service operators or grocers, send their

meat in refrigerated trucks to irradiation facilities,

such as the SureBeam plant in Sioux City, Iowa.

 

The ground beef, already in its final packaging, is

unloaded and put on a conveyor belt. High-energy

electrons are focused into a beam and scanned across

the meat for a few seconds, disrupting DNA chains of

bacteria such as salmonella and E. coli O157:H7.

 

Irradiation has been used for nearly 20 years on food

products such as wheat flour, potatoes and spices, and

on medical supplies. The U.S. Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) approved the process for beef in

1997, followed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture

in 2000.

 

The electron-beam technology has received support from

the American Medical Association, World Health

Organization and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

It does not use radioactive materials or leave any

radioactive residue.

 

The flexibility in cooking irradiated meat is a big

appeal, said Mike Harper, executive chef at St.

Paul-based Wildside Caterers, which provides food for

the suites at Minnesota Wild hockey games.

 

" We wanted to serve a hamburger, but if we cook ground

beef well done and then put it in the suites, it

becomes a pitiful product, " he said. Now, with

irradiated ground beef, " we don't have to cook it to

death, " so it holds up better in catering.

 

The main advantage of irradiation is food safety, but

it also extends shelf life. Fresh ground beef has a

shelf life of 15 to 18 days. Irradiated, it's 30 to 40

days.

 

Irradiation adds a couple of cents to the cost of each

burger, about 10 to 15 cents per pound.

 

There's movement in grocery stores too, where about a

dozen supermarkets in the Peoria, Ill., market are

testing irradiated fresh ground beef. The move is

significant because about 80 percent of retail ground

beef is sold fresh, and until recently the only

irradiated ground beef being sold was in the frozen

meat case.

 

The fresh ground beef is being sold under the Fairview

Farms label next to regular ground beef in a case that

features educational materials, said Gary Rhodes,

spokesman for Kroger. " It's too early " to gauge

consumer acceptance, he said.

 

Kroger gets its irradiated meat from Excel Corp., a

leading U.S. beef processor and a subsidiary of

Minnetonka-based Cargill Inc.

 

Some, however, don't want the choice.

 

When grocery stores in Peoria began selling the fresh

irradiated ground beef two months ago, several groups

protested, including Public Citizen, a national

consumer advocacy organization founded by Ralph Nader.

 

Irradiation opponents have raised questions about the

safety of irradiation and potential health problems

tied to today's large-scale farming practices, as well

as concerns that irradiation will allow processors to

become lax on cleanliness standards.

 

2002 Nando Media

 

 

 

 

 

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