Salads To Get New Dressing - Radiation

FDA Now Allows Spinach, Lettuce Sellers To Treat Produce With Radiation To Kill Bacteria

(CBS/ AP)  Consumers worried about salad safety may soon be able to buy fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce zapped with just enough radiation to kill E. coli and a few other germs.

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday will issue a new regulation allowing spinach and lettuce sellers to take that extra step, a long-awaited move amid increasing outbreaks from raw produce.

It doesn't excuse dirty produce, warned Dr. Laura Tarantino, FDA's chief of food additive safety. Farms and processors still must follow standard rules to keep the greens as clean as possible and consumers, too, should wash the leaves before eating.

"What this does is give producers and processors one more tool in the toolbox to make these commodities safer and protect public health," Tarantino said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, each year more than 300,000 people are hospitalized and 5,000 die from food-borne illnesses, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.

Irradiated meat has been around for years, particularly ground beef that is a favorite hiding spot for E. coli. Spices also can be irradiated.

But the Grocery Manufacturers Association had petitioned the FDA to allow a list of fresh produce and other foods to be irradiated as well - starting with leafy greens that have sparked numerous recent outbreaks, including E. coli in spinach that in 2006 killed three people and sickened nearly 200.

The industry group wouldn't name salad suppliers ready to start irradiating. But it expects niche marketing to trickle out first - bags of spinach and lettuce targeted to high-risk populations such as people with weak immune systems "who right now may be afraid to eat uncooked produce," said GMA's chief science officer Robert Brackett.

"It's one big step forward in improving the safety of fresh produce," he added.

The food is bombarded with high-frequency radiation - about 15 million times that of a single chest x-ray, reports Tracy.

"It kills the bacteria, makes it so they are not able to reproduce and … make you sick," microbiologist Brendan Niemira told CBS News.

A leading food safety expert said irradiation indeed can kill certain bacteria safely - but it doesn't kill viruses that also increasingly contaminate produce, and it isn't as effective as tightening steps to prevent contamination starting at the farm.

"It's a high-tech solution to problems that should be solved earlier in the food chain," Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest told CBS News.

She questioned why the FDA hasn't addressed her agency's 2006 call to require growers to document such things as how they use manure and ensure the safety of irrigation water. Irrigation is one suspect in this summer's nationwide salmonella outbreak attributed first to tomatoes and then to Mexican hot peppers.

"We are not opposed to the use of irradiation," DeWaal said. But, "it's expensive and it doesn't really address the problem at the source."

Won't zapping leafy greens with X-rays or other means of radiation leave them limp? Not with today's modern techniques and the right dose, the FDA decided.

The FDA determined that irradiation can kill E. coli, salmonella and listeria, as well as lengthen the greens' shelf life, without compromising the safety, texture or nutrient value of raw spinach lettuce.

E. coli actually is fairly sensitive to radiation, while salmonella and listeria require more energy. While irradiation doesn't sterilize, the FDA ruled that food companies could use a dose proven to dramatically reduce levels of those germs, a dose somewhat lower than meat requires.

But consumers shouldn't consider irradiation a panacea, either. While E. coli and salmonella tend to affect more people and make bigger headlines, consumer advocate DeWaal has found that norovirus contamination is a leading cause of produce outbreaks.

The irradiation rule goes into effect Friday. The FDA still is considering industry's petition to allow irradiation of additional produce. The grocery manufacturers group will push for other greens, such as Romaine lettuce, to be next, so that producers could irradiate bags of salad mixes.

While irradiated foods initially caused some consumer concern, FDA's Tarantino stressed that the food itself harbors no radiation.

"There is no residue, there's nothing left and certainly no radioactivity left," she said.

[sistatee-2009]

"I''ll have a Whopper please."
"You want extra gamma rays and strontium 90 on that?"
"Nope."
"Radium?"
"Nope."
"Weapons-grade uranium?"
"Nope."
"Tritium isotopes?"
"Nope."
"Neutron accelerators?"
"Nope."
"Sorry, we''re out of Whoppers."

[credibility2]

Franken-food, just what we need. Let''s keep it looking like it''s still fresh; the consumer will never know, so we won''t tell.

[misands]

I guess it''s a reminder to look at the positive - once the American people have finally gotten the nuclear war that they seem to be pushing for with Russia, the world will then be free of E-coli and Listeria! Hurray!

The FDA that only cares about corporate profit and not the health of the American public is killing the enzymes of these leafy greens like that did with nuts and seeds. The harm they do including approving deadly pharmaceuticals is criminal.

[random_radar]

Why couldn''t we have market choice for what foods we eat? If you want it washed without radiation, buy it. If you prefer irradiated, buy it. If you want to grow your own, do it.

Why do we have to force one thing on everyone? Why are we prohibited from buying food prepared the way we want? Why do other people think they can force their system of values on their neighbors?

Why is this country so afraid of freedom and enamored with Fascism?

[cdfoxtrot2]

"U.S consumers worried about salad safety may soon be able to buy fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce treated with just enough radiation to kill E. coli and a few other germs".

Will it be enough radiation to kill PEOPLE too?? Or do we get to discover the answer to that one over the next few decades?

[questionnews]

This is great! Now I can eat my salad while basking in the warm radiant glow of my lettuce. Night time dining just became easier!

[sepa2]

Everything is sanitized. Soon humans immune system will go to sleep forever and eventually we have to live in clean rooms

[cyberus-2009]

Yup .. lets irradiate food to kill off the bacteria rather than making the mega-farms supply porta-potties and potty breaks to their illegal workers

[cyberus-2009]

Yup .. lets irradiate food to kill off the bacteria rather than making the mega-farms supply porta-potties and potty breaks to their illegal workers

[lovesamerica]

I used to say "I am having lunch with my grandma" now I can say "I am having lunch with my gamma"

[hypnotoad72]

Does the irradiation process harm food? Only because microwaving vegetables will ruin its nutrient content... of course, I am comparing apples and oranges...

[sociald63]

green stuff and radiation - i am the HULK !!

[sociald63]

sistatee - you forgot "extra cheese but hold the salmonella"

[giannaanna]

It is so clear corporate news does no research on stories like this.

What about people like me who recovered and healed from severe illness by finding out what is being done to our food and learning how to eat what isnt''t tainted. Radiation is just another assault. It kills nutrients in the food, not just bad bacteria. Dangerous foods can usually be traced to high-volume corporate mono-farms where the natural ecosystem is in ruins. We are killing the variety that keeps food safe.

Irradiation is actually a great idea for yet more corporate profit--the pharmaceuticals can drug more profusely all the people who can''t figure out why they can''t stay healthy with normal food.

Good job FDA! Keep on pumping out commercials that make every known side-effect (like death) sound like the latest jingle. Keep coming up with "solutions" that don''t handle the real issues: corporate greed that exists to keep people sick for profit.

[giannaanna]

Radiation kills nutrients in the food. Period.

[giannaanna]

Radiation kills nutrients in the food. Period.

[stn_sage]

GREAT! Now, we get to buy a bunch of lifeless, strange tasting food that no longer has any nutrients in it!?
GEEZ!
Anybody get the feeling U.S.govt officials and appointees don''t have the best interest of the nation in mind when they do STUPID things like this?!
How about hiring a few more inspectors instead?

[kurlikew]

Yep, this is totally a stupid idea. Irradiating food even for a second changes the composition of it and renders it unrecognizable to your body; it is therefore treated like a toxin.

You''d be far better off to buy organic produce, and to wash whatever you buy well. If you spray your produce with diluted vinegar or hydrogen peroxide then rinse, this helps remove a lot of germs.

[lovesamerica]

the more sanitized we become the more suceptable we become. Our bodies are germ factories . Use common sense but don''t freak out over germs.

The FDA only cares about corporate profit and not the health of the American public and is killing the living enzymes of these leafy greens like that did with nuts and seeds. The harm they do including approving deadly pharmaceuticals is criminal. There board members are always rewarded with a high paying job with a pharmaceutical company when they leave the FDA.

[stevador39]

Radiation salad. Yum-yum. I''m not buying it.

[lovesamerica]

check the label carefully! you may think looking quickly that it says..contains radishes when actually...

[ubrew12]

"It doesn''t excuse dirty produce", warned Dr. Laura Tarantino, FDA''s chief of food additive safety.

She added: "It just means the FDA can continue excusing dirty produce due to lack of funds without worrying that Americans will get sick from the lack of oversight".

Radiation is a good idea for general produce, but anything that will kill E coli will also destroy many of the biological agents people buy fresh produce for in the first place. Better to pay more for truly fresh produce... non-zapped.

[tothestars2]

If radiation is so safe, why are we not building more nuclear plants?

[missingamerica]

The radiation of the produce itself in no way concerns me about either the safety of the product - initially - or the vitamin and mineral content. But I have a little problem with:

[bq]
It doesn''t excuse dirty produce, warned Dr. Laura Tarantino, FDA''s chief of food additive safety. Farms and processors still must follow standard rules to keep the greens as clean as possible and consumers, too, should wash the leaves before eating.
[eq]

With the record of maximizing profits and to hell with all other concerns - to include showing even enough concern for the citizens of our nation and its economy to allow us to think of them as even "mildly" patriotic - you can expect them to think this eventually:

"Hey, we can lay those sanitation workers and inspectors off...the irradiation equipment should cover our rear ends, and I want more stock options..."

[ubrew12]

ibsteve2u said: "Hey, we can lay those sanitation workers and inspectors off...the irradiation equipment should cover our rear ends, and I want more stock options..."

Thats EXACTLY what this is about.
More ''E Coli Conservatism'' from the Bush crowd.

[oneworldusa]

So, the cost of food goes up again and we''ll all get cancer from eathing salad.

[pirmin3]

Oh joy, one more thing to avoid.

[eggy1620]

Organic low growing (next to the ground) produce is covered in the stuff that falls out of the southbound end of a northbound horse. You bet I want that stuff zapped.

[idnnsg]

"Consumers worried about salad safety may soon..."

have to give up salad completely to avoid yet ANOTHER poison inflicted on us by the greedy food corporations and their government puppets!

[greeneyes222]

So instead of requiring food safety inspections, the FDA''s going to allow this and try to tell us it makes everything all better?

Not even close.

[eggy1620]

If big nasty corporations were truly trying to poison us, why is our life expectancy INCREASING?

[T2_Squared]

Instead of addresses the very real and multiple problems within the food supply chain of this country we turn to irradiating food. Great. Yet another in a long list of experimental, unproven in its safety & possilby hazardous to you health ideas brought to us by giant agri-business & enabled by thier co-conspirtors at the FDA.

As this article points out, even if you do irradiate, there are still plenty of nasties that will not be affected.

I say employ more of the Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) principle & start cleaning up the food chain at the source, start encouragin more local & organic growers over giant agri-business and make our food supply more safe & reliable.

[eggy1620]

t2_bikerider, organic growers are the ones putting raw poo on their crops.

[T2_Squared]

Ok, eggy1620, do you have any crediable evidence that links any true organic grower/farmer (not some big corporation masquarading as organic) with any outbreaks of food poisoning?

Properly prepared & deployed mulch & manure are far safer and environmentally friendly than the petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides used by the giant food producers.

[lucky1267]

"There is no residue, there''s nothing left and certainly no radioactivity left," she said.

Hmmmm....I have a bad feeling about all this.

[jeremy4209]

The FDA, of course, insists that the levels of irradiation used to kill e.coli will have no effect whatsoever on the nutritional value of the food. This astonishing statement comes from an agency that doesn''t believe food has any nutritional value in the first place, so lowering the value to zero by destroying all the phytonutrients does not, in the opinion of the FDA, alter its nutritional value at all. Thus, destroying all the anti-cancer nutrients in a head of broccoli merely brings that broccoli into "compliance" as a non-functional food, according to the FDA.

Radiation, of course, destroys delicate phytochemicals in plants -- the very phytochemicals protecting consumers against cancer, heart disease, high cholesterol, inflammation and other diseases. Microwaving broccoli, for example, destroys up to 98% of its anti-cancer nutrients. (The FDA has not yet acknowledged this scientific fact, either.) In a similar way, irradiating food destroys much of its nutritional content, including vitamins, carotenoids, anthocyanins and other delicate protective nutrients that are right now providing the last, desperate nutritional defense against the American diet of meat, milk, fried foods and processed junk.

Irradiating fresh produce will leave the U.S. population is a state of extreme deficiency in protective plant-based nutrients.

[naturalnews]

In promoting this food radiation policy, the FDA has accomplished what all the terrorists in the world could not: The mass irradiation of the U.S. food supply -- much like setting off a dirty bomb over the nation''s farms (but with less radiation). This destruction of the nutritional value of the food supply is a far greater threat to the health of the U.S. population than any terrorist event, including 9/11. And yet it is being done by our own people, TO our own people, by a lawless agency that answers to no one. FDA officials are not voted into office by the People; they are appointed by politicians. They answer to no one, they refuse to follow federal law, and they operate as tyrants over a quarter of the U.S. economy.
And now they have taken it upon themselves to destroy the national food supply.
Think about this: If the FDA has its way:
%u2022 All your food will be irradiated, pasteurized or killed
%u2022 All your children will be vaccinated
%u2022 All your medicine will be based on pharmaceuticals
%u2022 All your free speech about health will be suppressed
%u2022 All informative labeling on food and supplements will be outlawed
%u2022 Growing and selling non-irradiated garden vegetables will become a crime!

[greeneyes222]

Will irradiated foods be labeled, so we know what to avoid?

"Irradiated meat has been around for years, particularly ground beef that is a favorite hiding spot for E. coli. "

Works well, doesn''t it. That''s why we have so many ground beef recalls.

[eggy1620]

All these scare comments are proving my point. You all say that the growers should be ensuring their produce is clean. Well, right now the organic growers spreading E. coli all over their fields are not ensuring clean crops. They pick em and ship em. That%u2019s why the FDA is calling for this.

[displeased]

Well, right now the organic growers spreading E. coli all over their fields are not ensuring clean crops.
Posted by eggy1620

I think you''re confused about organic farming. I''ll stick with our locally organic grown produce over corporate or government generated experiments any day.

[usclimey]

Microwaving broccoli, for example, destroys up to 98% of its anti-cancer nutrients. (The FDA has not yet acknowledged this scientific fact, either.)

Posted by Jeremy4209

References please; and don''t include Dr. Joe Bob''s "Why you should be afraid of your food" web-site; peer reviewed journals only.

[displeased]

References please; and don''''t include Dr. Joe Bob''''s "Why you should be afraid of your food" web-site; peer reviewed journals only.
Posted by usclimey

Try this site:
http://www.applesforhealth.com/HealthyEating/
miczapnutr5.html

It lists the results of a study posted in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. I''m not sure the date of the study though.

[displeased]

Trying this again...

http://www.applesforhealth.com/HealthyEating/miczapnutr5.html

And another...

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2003/10/17/Study_microwaving_zaps_nutrients/UPI-68901066387926/

It appears the study was October 2003.

[jeremy4209]

How the USDA plans to join the FDA in keeping everyone sick
There is a corporate-sponsored plot underway in the U.S. today to keep people sick and deny them access to information about natural cures (such as medicinal foods) that would prevent disease and keep people out of the hospitals. In more than 1,500 articles on this website, I''ve documented the FDA''s criminality, the USDA''s indefensible actions, and the criminal behavior of drug manufacturers who only earn profits if they can find a way to keep the entire population sick and diseased for another generation or two.

Destroying the natural medicine in the food supply sure would be a highly effective way to create more customers for Big Pharma, wouldn''t it? I think it''s all part of the "keep the population sick and diseased" plot being carried out by an evil partnership between drug companies and the U.S. government. We already know that the FDA and USDA work for the corporations, not the People. We already know that they will do practically anything to boost their profits (including conducting medical experiments on infants, drugging schoolchildren, lying to the public, fabricating clinical trials and more). Is it any surprise that they would now attempt a "final solution" on the food supply that kills the food and thereby results in a huge reduction in the population''s intake of the disease-fighting nutrients found in fresh produce?

[naturalnews]

www.naturalnews.com

[republic1776]

Our Government is out of hand.
Money grubbing power hungry hoes.
Too much control.

[republic1776]

Jeremy4209,
Good point, we will loose natural immunity.

[hk94]

Hey fear mongers. Are you radiactive when you get your teeth or chest x rayed? NO. That''s what they use in this process. More vitamins and nutrients are lost when you cook the spinach then would ever be lost in this process. See this from the University of Wisonsin http://uw-food-irradiation.engr.wisc.edu/Process.html