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AW: AW: Food Irradiation Alert - Sierra Club of Canada
At 07:43
PM 11/30/2002 +0100, Franz Schoenhofer wrote:
While I agree wíth you on the question
whether all use of radioactive material is the target of certain groups
and that they want to prohibit it, I do not agree on the use of food
irradiation. This topic comes up at RADSAFE frequently. I support any
activities to save food in the developing countries by irradiating it
and saving it from being destroyed by pests. What I do not support is
the clearly uttered interest of some companies in the U'SA to maximize
their profits by marketing food, which otherwise would not be possible
to be marketized, because it is infested by salmonella and other -
deadly - bacteria. Yes, I write "deadly bacteria".
- I clearly oppose it, when it comes to "extended shelf
live". This is an argument, which is in sharp contrast with the
world wide opinion that food should be as fresh as possible. If
Americans accept that foods shelf life is extended by radiation -
please do it. Nobody in Europe will accept it - simply because there
is no need for it. We have excellent ways to ship oysters, fish,
crabs, etc. to any destination within Europe. The price is
accordingly. If you do not want to pay the price for fresh oysters -
leave it and eat a McDonalds hamburger instead - in Europe this
would be a kind of insunuaion.
- Food irradiation is ok, if it helps peoples to escape famine. It
is a crime, if it is intended to maximise profits of world wide
acting companies.
- Franz
Hi, Franz,
Do you oppose irradiation to extend shelf
life and "maximise the profits of world wide acting companies"
because while irradiation is good to help reduce famine, it still is
detrimental to the taste/texture/perceived quality of the food?
-------------------------
Richard,
I think I have clearly stated, that irradiation is in my opinion not
necessary in our "Western world", because we have the possibility
to ship food fast enough that it reaches the consumer unspoiled and
uninfested. Infestion by for instance salmonella is in many cases
unavoidable (Ruth pointed correctly to chicken), but common sense tells
people, not to eat raw or half-cooked chicken and to wash hands after having
prepared a meal is in my opinion also common sense and wide used practice! I
personally do not like half-done food made from ground meat, so cooking the
hamburgers correctly eliminates any danger from salmonella in ground meat.
We prefer in Europe small businesses - simply because it provides work for
much more people - but if let's say a ton of ground meat is infested with
salmonella it does not matter so much, compared to hundreds of tons.
Moreover the regulations for ground meat and the controls are very strict in
the European Union. Europeans claim, that the European Union is
overregulating everything (like the curvation of cucumber is regulated....),
but somehow this keeps our food rather safe. Because of the small dimensions
in case of a salmonella outbreak, only a few people are
affected.
What is the difference in your mind between
irradiation and the other methods of extending food shelf life all over the
world such as: refrigeration, freezing, freeze-drying, dehydrating,
pickling?
----------------------------------------------------
Yes, I think that there is a big difference. The methods of
refrigeration, freezing, smoking, drying and pickling are well developed
since dozens and hundreds of years. The technology is extremely wide-spread
in the "Western countries". (I remember that when I was young - a
long time ago! - my family did not own a refrigerator, not to talk about a
freezer.) Pickling is nowadays not only a matter of food conservation, but
is mostly used to produce certain food with distinctive flavour, as is
smoking. But even at the old times fruits, cabbage, lettuce etc. was
available also during winter time, because techniques were available since
ages, to store them in cool cellars after their
harvest.
As a contrast: What is irradiation like? You need huge processing
plants, you need a very complicated logistic, you waste time to ship goods
to the irradiation plant and to ship it from there to the consumers - is
this extended shelf-life? You need enormous capital investments for these
plants, not to talk about the licensing procedures. I do not believe that
the marketing organisations pay these costs.....
Finally: I enjoy tropical fruits, especially when being in
countries, where they are freshly supplied to the markets. I have recently
been four weeks in Mexico and I really enjoyed the papayas, the melons,
pineapples etc. But do we really have to have these fruits in our countries?
Can't we eat apples and pears?
With my best regards,
Franz