I've followed with some interest over the years the repeated recalls of e-coli contaminated beef and salmonella contaminated chicken. Once in a while there's an article about the hygiene efforts of producers and meat packers. Recently I heard about policies in Denmark where hygiene levels are orders of magnitude better than typical. But, of course, their prices are higher.
I wasn't quoting anybody's anti-nuke propaganda. It just seems logical that there's a trade-off in fast production and hygiene. If the latter can be solved with a quick trip through the irradiator, won't the faster production become the more competitive behavior? So if a producer decides to be conservative and slower with better hygiene, pretty soon that producer can't compete. If this is 'baseless,' please explain how you think the market response would work.
I admit, quality advocates would say that you can have both fast and clean, but that takes a lot of effort. I'm just trying to be realistic.
I have been a long time advocate of the free choice of food irradiation and continue to be.
Mark
Mark G. Hogue, CHP
mark.hogue@srs.gov
"But we surely overrate the usefulness of what we like to call "stimulation" and underrate the need for time, peace of mind, mature reflection." - Susan Haack
"DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed are mine and do not necessarily represent Westinghouse Savannah River Co. or the United States Department of Energy."
RuthWeiner@aol.com
12/06/02 09:48 AM
To: mark.hogue@srs.gov, radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
cc:
Subject: Re: Food Irradiation Alert - etc.
In a message dated 12/6/02 6:18:35 AM Mountain Standard Time, mark.hogue@SRS.GOV writes:
I can sympathize with Franz on one thing: irradiation shouldn't be an excuse for sloppy food handling practices.
To my knowledge, the only source of this charge is anti-nuke propaganda. It is a trumped-up charge. No advocate of food irradiation has ever claimed that it would be used to cover up unsanitary handling. I really don't like to see this kind of baseless assumption bandied about as if it were Gospel.