Food Irradiation Update is published by the Minnesota Beef Council

Quotable Quotes:
"Irradiation of the “final packaged food product” is clearly the best solution to the E. coli and other food-borne pathogen contamination problems. Carcass irradiation is NOT the solution to the E. coli problem in food that is ready to enter the consumer marketplace.”
Harlan Clemmons, President & Chief Operating Office, Sadex Corporation

A spokesman for Daniele International, the Rhode Island company involved in the recall of 1.2 million pounds of ready-to-eat salami said it has changed suppliers and will now use pepper that is irradiated for food safety.
Various sources

In This Update:
Salmonella blamed as hundreds fall ill after eating Italian sausages;
Jolley: Five Minutes With Harlan Clemmons & The Irradiated Food Question
Space: The Final Frontier For Fresh Produce?
Partnership enables Philippines to produce virus-resistant Lakatan banana
Retail Frozen Ground Beef Patties and Risks of E. coli O157:H7
Ground Beef Recall Now Reaches Over 5 Million Pounds
Oklahoma Firm Recalls Beef Products Due To Possible E. coli O157:H7 Contamination

Important Food Safety Links:

Kansas State University

Marler Blog

Food Irradiation Processors Alliance (FIPA)

Federal officials say 225 people in 44 states and the District are thought to have been sickened by salmonella in imported black pepper used in the preparation of salami and other types of Italian sausage made by a Rhode Island company. Daniele International recalled 1.2 million pounds of ready-to-eat salami Jan. 22, after state health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked the outbreak to the company's products. Daniele expanded the recall Feb. 4 to include 23,754 additional pounds of salami products. Read more here....
Related stories:
Recall of pepper-coated salame products
Salami recalled over salmonella concerns
Rhode Island Firm Recalls Italian Sausage Products Due to Possible Salmonella Contamination

Five years ago, the American Meat Institute had submitted a petition to the US Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) requesting that that e-beam irradiation be approved as a food safety processing aid. The FSIS, despite several promises of action and a lot of request by the AMI for a decision, has never followed through. FoodProductionDaily.com asked the FSIS to clarify the matter. A government spokesman replied, “The topic has not been shelved and is not off the table. FSIS informed the American Meat Institute (AMI), the petitioner, that the Agency has questions about their petition. AMI needs to provide answers to the questions in order for FSIS to be able to act further on the petition.”  The AMI promptly said it had “received no formal response to our petition including questions or concerns that FSIS may have”. Read Harlan Clemmons interview here....

Just before Christmas, NASA sent a note: Irradiated smoked turkey, thermostabilized yams and NASA’s own special stuffing recipe can mean only one thing — holiday season aboard the International Space Station. We wondered what role fresh produce served in the diet of astronauts. We asked Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor Mira Slott to find out more:
Read more here....

Retail Frozen Ground Beef Patties and Risks of E. coli O157:H7; By James Marsden (February 15, 2010):

It's time to recognize that retail frozen ground beef patties pose an increased risk to consumers and take steps to reduce that risk.   If you conduct a Google search using the words "frozen ground beef patties and E. coli ", you will see that this product category has been implicated in an inordinate number of cases, outbreaks and recalls.   The Topps recall and other highly publicized events over the past several years resulted from contaminated frozen groundfrozen ground beef patties. The October New York Times story that described a devastating illness that resulted from E. coli O157:H7 contamination also involved retail frozen ground beef patties. Read more here....

Huntington Meat Packing Inc. in Montebello, Calif., added approximately 4.9 million additional pounds of beef and veal products that were not produced in accordance with the company's food safety plan to a recall initially issued Jan.18th recalling approximately 864,000 pounds of beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
The recall was expanded based on evidence collected in an ongoing criminal investigation being conducted by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) with assistance from USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service. This evidence shows that the products subject to the recall expansion were produced in a manner that did not follow the establishment's HACCP plan, FSIS said. Read more here....
Related story:
Huntington Meat Packing Inc. is expanding its recall to include approximately 4.9 million additional pounds of beef and veal products.

A Philippine partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the University of Frankfurt is enabling the Philippines to adopt techniques in producing the exotic “Lakatan” that is resistant to banana bunchy top virus (BBTV) even as this variety has high market potential given higher production.

While the Philippines is one of the world’s top four largest banana producers, a continuing niche in the banana sector is being eyed by the government specifically through the Lakatan variety. And the use of "gamma irradiation," which is a higher energy version of X-ray, is helping breeders come up with a mutant variety that can produce higher yield due to resistance to BBTV. Read more here....