Irradiated Meat

["Smith, David" <DSmith@RESEARCH.USF.EDU>]

Consumers Reject Irradiated Meat in Florida 
Campaign Succeeds in Educating Consumers about the Hazards of Food "Treated"

with Radiation 

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Two Florida grocers halted sales of irradiated meat due 
to lack of consumer interest, which resulted in paltry sales. DeLoach's Meat

Market in Lakeland and Stuart's Fine Foods in Stuart decided to stop selling

experimental food products to their customers just days after sales began. 

"Florida consumers have exercised the wisdom not to serve unwholesome food 
to their families. They have voted with their pocketbooks, and the loser in 
this election is irradiation," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public 
Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "Once consumers know

the facts about this under-studied, over-hyped technology, they see through 
the food industry's smokescreen and refuse to take chances with their 
families' health and safety." 

The decision by the two locally owned merchants represents a failure by 
irradiation proponents to convince the public that food "treated" with the 
equivalent of tens of millions of chest x-rays is safe for them to eat, 
Hauter said. 

"It's what we've said all along: Consumers are not interested in this 
product," said M.J. Williamson, organizer for the Florida Consumer Action 
Network. "The beef industry is pushing this stuff onto the public. But 
consumers want clean, wholesome food. They will not settle for anything 
less." 

Irradiation, touted as a way to kill food-borne pathogens, has numerous 
harmful side-effects, including the destruction of vitamins and nutrients, 
poor flavor and texture, and the generation of chemical compounds whose 
possible effects on the body have not been fully studied. Federal government

officials have legalized this technology despite a half-century worth of 
research revealing serious health problems in lab animals that have eaten 
irradiated food, including premature death, cancer, immune and reproductive 
problems, liver and kidney dysfunction, and chromosomal damage. 

Public Citizen is leading a national campaign to stop the use of high levels

of radiation to "treat" food. More than 200 consumer, environmental and 
labor organizations representing more than 1 million people have joined this

effort. In Florida, the campaign is being led by the Florida Consumer Action

Network. 

For more information about this and other Public Citizen issues, visit our 
Web site at www.citizen.org <http://www.citizen.org> 
###

David Smith
Health Physicist
University of South Florida
(813)980-6176
dsmith@research.usf.edu <mailto:dsmith@research.usf.edu> 

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