Food Irradiation Archives

Irradiated food alert. Archive

Friends,

NO long term testing on humans at all.

Comments?

Walt

I thought I would pass this along,
Misty
http://www.searching-alternatives.com

Dear Reader,

After sending you the e-Alert last week about irradiated beef
("Don't Beam Me Up" 2/4/03), I came across a news item
announcing that a popular supermarket chain began selling
irradiated ground beef on February 2nd in six mid-Atlantic
states, including Maryland, where I live. These stores are
among some 4,000 nationwide that currently sell irradiated
beef.

This alone would be unsettling enough. But in response to
that e-Alert, I received a reply from HSI Panelist Jon Barron
with additional information about the irradiation process
that I guarantee will make you think twice the next time you
stop off at your grocery to buy meat products.

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Who let the nutrients out?
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To briefly recap: Irradiation is a process by which a food
product is exposed to extremely high doses of radiation to
kill bacteria, parasites and funguses that may cause spoilage
or disease. And if that were all irradiation did, that would
be fine. But as we'll see, there's much more to it than that.

Jon begins by describing the process in more detail: "Food is
exposed to 'hard' irradiation, usually gamma rays from a
source like cobalt-80, in doses of 100,000 to 3,000,000 rads.
To give you a sense of how high a dose this is, understand
that a dose of just 10,000 rads will totally destroy any
living tissue."

As HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., made clear last week, an
abundance of nutrients are also eliminated by this process.
Jon agrees, and says, "as much as 70% of the Vitamin A, B1
and B2 in irradiated milk is destroyed, and about 30% of
Vitamin C." Unfortunately, irradiation also accelerates the
growth of aspergillus mold, "which produces the most potent
natural carcinogens known to man, called aflatoxins."

I wish I could say that's the worst of it - but we're just
getting started.

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A radiotoxin by any other name...
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Processing food with the extremely high levels of gamma rays
described above results in the creation of some very
dangerous molecules, about which Jon gives this interesting
but frightening background: "They were originally
called 'radiotoxins' by Russian researchers. Since that word
would be frightening to American consumers, the FDA came up
with a couple of 'softer' terms. They call them 'known
radiolytic products' to describe the molecules that are
created such as formaldehyde and benzene (known carcinogens),
and as for those chemical molecules created by irradiation
and that have never before been seen by man, the FDA came up
with the equally soft 'unique radiolytic products.'"

Long before the FDA started assigning more palatable terms
for these very unappetizing results, it had already reviewed
more than 400 studies about the irradiation process. But Jon
tells us where that review process fell woefully short: "They
accepted 226 studies for further review. They then narrowed
their criteria and selected only 69 for in-depth review. Of
these, the FDA itself reported that 32 of the 69 showed
adverse effects, and 37 showed safety problems. Then without
explanation, they eliminated all but 5 of the 69 (including
every negative study) and said they would base their decision
on those 5 alone.

"In the FDA's final report approving food radiation, they
wrote that when up to 35% of the lab-animal diet was
radiated, feeding studies had to be terminated because of
premature mortality or morbidity." And in one test at the
Medical College of Virginia, rats fed irradiated beef "died
of hemorrhagic syndrome in 34 days."

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Running from the radura
--------------------------------------------------------------

According to Jon, "Foods already approved for irradiation
include: fruits, vegetables, wheat, flour, herbs, spices,
nuts, seeds, peas, pork, and chicken." And to that we can add
ground beef - now in a supermarket in my neighborhood, and
very likely in yours as well.

If you don't like the idea of irradiated food (and at this
point I can't imagine how anyone possibly could), you can
look for a symbol called the "radura" which is required on
the packaging of irradiated foods. The radura is a green
circle (broken into four segments at the top of the circle),
enclosing a flower image represented by a large green dot
with two petals below the dot.

But even if you avoid products marked with the radura, you're
still not in the clear. As Jon explains, "The FDA requires a
label stating a food has been radiated if, and only if, it
was radiated as a 'whole food' and then is sold unchanged.
But, if you process it in any way, if you add any other
ingredients to it, it no longer requires a label stating that
it (or any of its ingredients) were irradiated. To put it
simply, an irradiated orange would require a label;
irradiated orange juice would not."

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An uncomfortable level of comfort
--------------------------------------------------------------

But even if people see the radura on a package of ground
beef, a bag of Brazil nuts, or a sticker on an apple - do
they know what its significance is? And worse, do they have
any idea of the risks? By and large, my guess is "no." In a
report from Reuters last December, a survey conducted by the
National Cattlemen's Beef Association found that almost half
of Americans say they would feel comfortable purchasing
irradiated meat. This response was 10 percent higher than it
had been to the same question on a similar nationwide survey
earlier in the year.

In other words, people are apparently becoming comfortable
with the idea of irradiated food. And it seems they'll have
ample opportunity to buy it. SureBeam Corporation (the
largest provider of irradiation technology in the U.S.) plans
to process more than 300 million pounds of beef this year.
Last year they processed only 15 million pounds.

Feel free to forward this e-Alert to friends and relatives.
Help us spread the word that this idea, whose time has
apparently come, is not a good idea, although it looks like
it's probably here to stay. So it may be the best that we can
do to avoid irradiated foods by looking for the odd green
flower.

My thanks to Jon Barron for his exhaustive profile of this
subject. Jon has researched and written extensively about
alternative medicine, nutrition, and herbal remedies for
almost thirty years. For more information about Jon and his
work, visit his web site at jonbarron.com.

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