Food irradiation—treating food with powerful
electromagnetic radiation in order to kill harmful bacteria—sounds scary
and awful. So it's no surprise that the practice is hotly debated in
the food world: Governments and health agencies stand behind it, but a
number of consumer advocacy groups say it's a failed and potentially
harmful system.
It's never too late to join this great food-tech debate. Here's what you need to know in order to chime in.
What Is Food Irradiation?
It's
the process of subjecting food to x-rays, gamma rays, or electron
beams, which kill the kinds of bacteria that can cause illness, cause
spoilage, and get rid of insects that might be hiding out in the food.
Which Foods Are Allowed To Be Irradiated?
To
date, the FDA has approved beef and pork, crustaceans (lobster, shrimp,
and crab), fresh produce, mollusks (scallops, mussels, clams, oysters),
poultry, seeds for sprouting, eggs, spices, and seasonings.
How Will I Know If A Food Has Been Irradiated?
By law, irradiated food must bear the words "Treated by Radiation" or "Treated with Irradiation" along with a radura stamp, which is the international symbol for food irradiation.
Do Irradiated Foods Cost More?
Yes,
according to the University of Wisconsin Madison's Food Irradiation
Education Group. It increases the price of fruits and veggies by two to
three cents per pound and poultry and meat products by three to five
cents per pound.
Is Irradiated Food Radioactive?
No.
"This cannot happen," explains John P. Hageman, radiation safety
officer and principal scientist at Southwest Research Institute. "The
energy of the x-rays or energetic electrons used in food irradiation do
not have enough power to create new atoms that are radioactive."
So, Irradiated Food Is Safe?
A lot
of really important groups say yes: Food irradiation is supported by the
UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, the WHO, the CDC, the FDA, the
International Atomic Energy Association, and the American Dietetic
Association. Then again, plenty of other trustworthy groups don't
support it: The Organic Consumer's Association and the Center For Food
Safety, for example, have expressed dissent.
The
anti-irradiation camp says the process can leave harmful chemical
compounds called radiolytic products in your food, which can damage DNA,
according to the Center for Food Safety. The Center also cites research
that feeding irradiated food to lab animals can stunt their growth and
that irradiation can cause the formation of other harmful chemicals
(including benzene, a carcinogen) in food.
"This is not
the case," Hageman argues. "It's a major misconception that food
irradiation will create toxic compounds at levels that are harmful."
He
explains it like this: All kinds of heating or processing causes
alterations to food, some of which may be harmful (a prime example:
heterocyclic amines, compounds that form when you char or brown meat,
have been associated with several different types of cancer). "Heating
transforms the molecules in food. Food gets brown, cake mixes go from
liquid to solid. The chemical changes occurring in cooked food are the
same type of changes that irradiation can cause," Hageman says. "You
should not be concerned about any harmful compounds in irradiated
food—no more than you are worried about drinking pasteurized milk or
eating chicken cooked at home to remove botulism."
OK, But Does Irradiation Actually Work?
Yes
and no. It does kill dangerous bacteria like Salmonella and E. coli,
and that's nothing to sneeze at. "But there are certain pathogens,
including botulism and all viruses, which are not killed by
irradiation," says Bill Freese, science policy analyst at the Center for
Food Safety.
Also important: Irradiation does nothing
to treat the actual cause of foodborne illness. There are many reasons
that a food can be infected, but among the biggest offenders are
concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.
"CAFOs
generate tons of manure, and manure contains pathogens, which get into
irrigation water, and then get on produce," says Freese. "Food
irradiation is a Band-Aid for the festering wound of this really
unhealthy food system."
Can It Degrade Nutrients In Food?
Yes,
but so does basically anything else you do to food after you harvest it
(microwaving, roasting, steaming, even just exposing it to light and
air).
Some sources assure you that irradiation doesn't
affect nutrient quality. "That's complete nonsense," says Freese. He's
right: It took us all of five minutes to find evidence that irradiation
can degrade nutrients. It decreased vitamin C content in honey, leaf
lettuces, and baby spinach. It decreased folate in spinach, green
cabbage, and Brussels sprouts. Another study found that irradiation
slashed vitamin A in millet by nearly 89 percent. Still, 40 governments
worldwide have embraced the procedure, so the nutrient loss may be worth
the anti-bacterial benefit.
What's The Bottom Line?
A
swath of large regulatory agencies say that irradiated food is safe and
beneficial. And, for people with compromised immune systems,
irradiation might even be a better choice, since it kills at least some
harmful pathogens.
But Freese and the CFS are right:
Irradiation isn't an ideal solve. In a perfect world, farms wouldn't
have the unsanitary conditions that allow pathogens to flourish in the
first place.
For now, if you don't want to eat
irradiated food, you don't have to. In fact, Freese says, irradiated
products already perform poorly in the marketplace because of consumer
concerns, and just because a food product can be irradiated, doesn't
mean it is. Just buy organic (the National Organic Standard prohibits
food irradiation) or check the packaging.
Source:MSN
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Health