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Fwd: FDA Approves Beef Irradiation
FYI.
[To those who flamed me last time I posted an AP article that AOL had sent
me: I can read the notice at the end of the article, too. I am sending it
anyway. No flames, please.]
Bob Cherry
bobcherry@aol.com
---------------------
Forwarded message:
Subj: FDA Approves Beef Irradiation
Date: 97-12-02 13:47:04 EST
From: AOL News
<HTML><PRE><FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=5><B>FDA Approves Beef Irradiation
<FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE=3></B><HTML><PRE><I>.c The Associated
Press</I></PRE></HTML>
By CURT ANDERSON
WASHINGTON (AP) - Coming soon to your local meat market: Fresh beef
irradiated with cobalt gamma rays?
The Food and Drug Administration today approved use of irradiation to kill
harmful bacteria such as E. coli in beef, a decision favored by an industry
that was rocked this year by several meat recalls and consumer food safety
fears.
Dr. Michael Friedman, acting FDA commissioner, said in an interview that
irradiation will become a useful tool in combating food-borne illness, but
that ultimate responsibility still will rest with the food handler and
preparer.
``We think it is safe and we think it is appropriate,'' Friedman said of the
procedure. ``But the consumer should not believe that he or she does not have
to use good cooking and handling techniques.''
Some anti-nuclear activists have protested irradiation as unsafe, but
Friedman said FDA scientists determined that the process does not change the
fundamental properties of meat and does not make it radioactive in any way.
``There is no contact with a radioactive substance. There is nothing left on
the meat,'' Friedman said.
The FDA acted on a three-year-old petition from Isomedix Inc., a New Jersey
company with long experience in medical sterilization that wants to offer
meat processors irradiation with cobalt-60 gamma rays. There are many other
ways to safely irradiate meat and other companies in the market.
Such techniques would enable meat packers to kill bacteria at the end of the
production line, after it is already sealed in packages and cannot be
contaminated further. This is particularly important in ground beef, where
bacteria can easily get beneath the surface during grinding.
Although irradiation has been available for years for poultry, pork, spices
and some fresh produce, interest in the process for beef intensified after
this summer's recall of 25 million pounds of Hudson Food Co. hamburger
tainted with E. coli.
The meat industry lobbied vigorously for irradiation as an alternative to
Clinton administration proposals for greater government authority to recall
contaminated products and punish violators.
``I think there is a greater degree of interest,'' said Patrick Boyle,
president of the American Meat Institute, a meatpacking industry
organization.
In this year's FDA spending bill, Congress ordered the agency to act within
60 days on the Isomedix petition. The bill also changed labeling requirements
for all foods treated with irradiation so that the words need be no larger
than those for the ingredients.
The three years it took to act on the petition were necessary, Friedman said.
``There were some very complex scientific issues that had to be dealt with,''
he said. But, he added: ``We believe the safety of food is so important that
we will be focusing our efforts in a more effective way in the future.''
The FDA's action today approves safe irradiation dosage levels for various
forms of meat, such as frozen, fresh and so on. It is now up to the
Agriculture Department to issue regulations for processing plants that
conform to those levels.
Once that is done, Boyle said meat plants would have to figure out how to use
irradiation, whether they can afford it and whether there is a consumer
demand. It is uncertain how adaptable the process would be for hamburger that
is ground in the grocery store.
Most likely, consumers would see products marketed in the future that would
offer them the choice of purchasing irradiated meat.
``I think it's going to take a little time for industry and consumers to move
towards the adoption of irradiation as a purchasing option,'' he said.
One reason irradiation is not widely used on other products is consumer
wariness of the process and lack of education about it, said Brian Folkerts,
vice president for governmental affairs at the National Food Processors
Association.
``We need to stop giving consumers the impression that the label is a warning
when it has been found safe,'' Folkerts said.
AP-NY-12-02-97 0943EST
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