RE: Food irradiation

[keith.millington@tft.csiro.au]

Hi guys, 

This is my first foray onto this group, and I must say that having read some
of the postings over the past 2 or 3 days, it looks very easy to get
severely flamed here with little provocation ! 
However I would like to bring the groups's attention to the use of nitrates
as  food preservatives.
Steve Frey wrote:

> Individuals like the following gentleman are certainly 
> welcome to express 
> their opinions....but we ought to insist that only facts be 
> used in attempts 
> to persuade the public in matters concerning health. Assuming 
> other Radsafers 
> will identify the glaring factual errors regarding his 
> statements about 
> radiobiological effects, I'd like to point out that the 
> compound of nitrogen 
> used as a food additive is nitrite, not nitrate (Does the 
> individual even 
> know the difference?). 

Not true Steve. Both sodium nitrite and nitrate appear to be used as
preservatives for dried meats. according to the following snippet freely
obtained from a food additive website.
http://www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm#Alphabetical

Meat processors love sodium nitrite because it
                                            stabilizes the red color in
cured meat (without
                                             nitrite, hot dogs and bacon
would look gray) and
                                             gives a characteristic flavor.
Sodium nitrate is used
                                             in dry cured meat, because it
slowly breaks down
                                             into nitrite. Adding nitrite to
food can lead to the
                                             formation of small amounts of
potent
                                             cancer-causing chemicals
(nitrosamines),
                                             particularly in fried bacon.
Nitrite, which also
                                             occurs in saliva and forms from
nitrate in several
                                             vegetables, can undergo the
same chemical
                                             reaction in the stomach.
Companies now add
                                             ascorbic acid or erythorbic
acid to bacon to
                                             inhibit nitrosamine formation,
a measure that has
                                             greatly reduced the problem.
While nitrite and
                                             nitrate cause only a small
risk, they are still worth
                                             avoiding.		

As regards irradiation of food in general, I know very little about its pros
and cons. However it seems to me conceivable that generation of higher
concentrations of free radicals in irradiated foods than, say during cooking
(or exposure to natural background radiation) could lead to increased levels
of undesirable breakdown products in the foodstuffs. Some of these breakdown
products might be toxic or have a nasty taste.  As most foodstuffs were once
highly complex living systems now deceased, isn't the problem with food
irradiation one of knowing exactly what nasties are produced when each food
is irradiated, their concentrations,  and what the effects of these
compounds (if any) are on  systems which are still alive (ie. the eater) ?
This looks a pretty complex issue to me. 
Having been around on this planet for over 40 years now , I"m afraid I no
longer take assurances from "experts" that "things are perfectly safe" at
face value any more. History suggests this is a fairly dumb thing to do. 

My thoughts, not my employers.
Keith

Dr Keith R Millington,
Project Leader, Textile Photochemistry
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