RE: New York Times - Red Meat Irradiation Rules

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

On Fri, 12 Feb 1999 Brian_Gaulke@hc-sc.gc.ca wrote:
> 
> On 99/02/12 Mike G. wrote:
> 
>      So, once again, the purpose of irradiation is to prolong
>      shelf life, not to serve as a substitute for sanitary food
>      handling procedures to minimize the number of 'starting
>      organisms' on your food product.
> It seems that Mike has given the real reason the food industries might be
> interested in irradiation, i.e., reducing losses by increasing shelf life
> thereby increasing profits.  The issue of reducing deaths could just be a
> convenient way of selling the idea to the public and regulators

	--Extending shelf life and preventing disease are two different
advantages of irradiation. The first improves the quality of our food and
allows us to have foods transported from large distances (e.g. tropical
fruits) at reasonable prices; it would also reduce starvation in some
disadvantaged areas of the world. But the disease prevention aspect is
even more  important. For example, 30-40% of all poultry sold in U.S. is
contaminated with bacteria like salmonella which kills 2000 per year in
U.S. I get none of the profits from the food industry, but I would value
getting a wider variety of fresher-tasting foods that would be less likely
to give me a food-borne disease. If you would not like these advantages,
you are always free to buy non-irradiated food (except for spices which
have been routinely irradiated in U.S. for many years).




Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu


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