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Food Irradiation Update is published by the Minnesota Beef Council | |||
Quotable Quotes: "Dr. Mansour Samadpour of IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group in Seattle reported at the "7th International Symposium on Shiga Toxin Producing E. coli" that his lab tested approximately 5,000 samples of ground beef purchased at retail stores and found non-O157 STECs in 1.9 percent of the samples. One positive out of every 50 packages sampled suggests a high rate of contamination. It is more proof that the pathogens exist in our food supply and make people sick.
We urge the President, his appointees and the industry to join us in supporting FSIS's efforts to get non-O157 STECs out of our ground beef." "It is practically impossible to prevent at least some bugs getting into food in the field, no matter how stringent the hygiene rules. And washing fresh produce removes little more than surface dirt. The only answer is irradiation. That means treating food with high-energy bursts of electrons or photons to attack the micro-organisms’ DNA, preventing them from spitting out dangerous toxins and proliferating. In This Update: | |||
| Irradiation underused to fight E. coli in foods; Associated Press; By Lauren Neergard; (June 6, 2011): | |||
| WASHINGTON (AP) — Zapping salad fixings with just a bit of radiation can kill dangerous E. coli and other bacteria — and food safety experts say Europe's massive outbreak shows wary consumers should give the long-approved step a chance. The U.S. government has OK'd irradiation for a variety of foods — meat, spices, certain imported fruits, the seeds used to grow sprouts. Even iceberg lettuce or spinach can be irradiated without the leaves going limp. And no, it doesn't make the food radioactive. But sterilized leafy greens aren't on the market, and overall sales of irradiated foods remain low. A disappointed Grocery Manufacturers Association says one reason is that sellers worry about consumer mistrust. "We need to do whatever we can to give us a wider margin of safety," says Dr. Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota infectious disease specialist who frequently advises the government. "Food irradiation for a number of produce items would give us not just a marginal increase, but give us probably the Grand Canyon increase of safety." The source of the E. coli strain in Europe hasn't been pinpointed. Health authorities have warned consumers there not to eat any type of sprout, the newest suspect, but also say to avoid tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce until the mystery is solved. Read more here..... |
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| USDA Urged to Prohibit Antibiotic-Resistant Salmonella in Ground Meat and Poultry; (May 26, 2011): | |||
GROUND MEAT and poultry found to contain antibiotic-resistant strains of Salmonella should be recalled from the marketplace or withheld from commerce, according to a regulatory petition filed May 26 by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The nonprofit food safety watchdog group wants the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare four such Salmonella strains as “adulterants” under federal law, making products that contain them illegal to sell. |
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| STEC Pathogens are a growing food safety concern: Beef Magazine; By Walt Barnhart; (June 1, 2011); | |||
| NON-O157:H7 STEC PATHOGENS ARE A FOOD SAFETY CHALLENGE. It was just short of 20 years ago that beef producers had to familiarize themselves with the term O157:H7 and learn about the ramifications of the pathogen. Now there’s a new set of letters and numbers related to food safety that need similar attention – STEC. STEC – or Shiga toxin-producing E. coli – includes O157:H7, but represents a broader continuum of both benign and virulent germs that researchers, government officials and industry leaders are working hard to overcome. While hundreds of non-O157 STEC exist, they vary considerably in their severity, with some possibly as dangerous as O157:H7, and others presenting no problems. Read more here.... |
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| Should food irradiation return to the table? Los Angeles Times; By Elena Conis; (June 19, 2011); | |||
IN THE WAKE OF EUROPE'S E. COLI OUTBREAK, in which sprouts contaminated with a particularly vicious strain killed 39 people and sickened thousands, food safety officials are asking once again what more can be done to curb the spread of food-borne illnesses. Food-borne infections in the U.S. have declined 20% over the last 10 years, thanks to tighter regulations and steps taken by the food and agricultural industries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But they still cause more than 48 million cases of illness and about 3,000 deaths each year. |
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Should the U.S. beef industry be more aggressive in promoting the use of food irradiation?
BEEF Magazine; (June 17, 2011): |
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SHOULD THE US BEEF INDUSTRY be more aggressive in promoting the use of food irradiation? – The BEEF magazine poll conducted during the week of June 10-17, garnered more than 100 votes, with a clear and resounding 90% saying “Yes, it’s proven to be an effective, cost-effective, final step.” Meanwhile, just 7% checked “No, let’s continue to spend money finding other interventions,” and 2% didn’t have an opinion. Read more here..... |
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| Commentary: Want safe food? Technology has a solution | |||
| THE DEATH TOLL FROM THE GERMAN E. COLI OUTBREAK rose to 35 Sunday (it's now 39) and health officials fear others may die. The outbreak has sickened nearly 3,100 so far, though those same health officials say the pace of the outbreak has slowed significantly. On Friday, health officials announced they had determined the source of the contamination was sprouts from a farm in northern Germany. They tracked the bacteria's path from hospital patients struggling with diarrhea and kidney failure, to restaurants where they had dined, to specific meals and ingredients they ate, and finally back to a single farm. While many pundits seem eager to vilify livestock production, they don’t seem nearly as interested in telling the American public that technology has a solution for much of our E. coli contaminations. It’s called irradiation, and it’s currently underused. |
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| Jolley: Five minutes with Dr. Richard Raymond and food safety; Drover's CattleNetwork; (May 27, 2011): | |||
| DR. RICHARD RAYMOND graduated from Hastings College and earned his medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Afterwards, he spent almost two decades practicing medicine in rural Nebraska. Dr. Raymond then became Nebraska’s top doc, when he was appointed director of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services Regulation & Licensure division by Governor Mike Johanns. He managed the state’s health care and environmental issues. He directed a large number of public health programs including disease prevention and health promotion. He developed anti-bioterrorism initiatives and a statewide health care alert system. So we can safely assume that he has something meaningful to say about food safety. Want more bona fides? The good doctor was appointed USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety in 2005. He was responsible for overseeing the policies and programs of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and he chaired the U.S. Codex Steering Committee, which provides guidance to U.S. delegations to the Codex Alimentarius Commission. |
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| Food Poisoning: Gut Feeling; The Economist ; (June 17, 2011): | |||
THE BEAN SPROUTS contaminated with a particularly nasty strain of Escherichia coli, a bug that normally lives quietly in the gut of humans and other animals, have now sickened over 3,300 people in Germany and caused 39 deaths. Since the outbreak began in May, a quarter of those infected have developed haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS)—a potentially fatal complication that affects the blood, kidneys and nervous system. The question is how the O104:H4 got there in the first place? The usual route is via animal faeces that have contaminated the water used for sprouting, or from manure used directly as organic fertiliser. But both have been ruled out. The conclusion is that the seeds themselves must have been contaminated beforehand. It is practically impossible to prevent at least some bugs getting into food in the field, no matter how stringent the hygiene rules. And washing fresh produce removes little more than surface dirt. The only answer is irradiation. That means treating food with high-energy bursts of electrons or photons to attack the micro-organisms’ DNA, preventing them from spitting out dangerous toxins and proliferating. Read more here..... Related Articles: |
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| Europe's Organic Food Scare; Wall Street Journal; (June 17, 2011): | |||
GERMAN GREENS AND THEIR EUROPEAN ACCOLYTES have long fought scientific advances in food production and protection. After a spice manufacturer in Stuttgart employed the world's first commercial food irradiation in 1957, West Germany banned the practice in 1959 and has since allowed few exceptions. So it's no small scandal that the latest fatal E. coli outbreak has been linked to an organic German farm that shuns modern farming techniques. |
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| Consumer group pitches idea of irradiating more food to agriculture officials; By Pat Hewitt, The Canadian Press – (Jun 9, 2011): | |||
TORONTO — The idea of irradiating more of Canada's food supply in light of the deadly E. coli crisis in Europe was raised with federal agriculture officials Thursday during a round-table discussion on food safety. |
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| Europe’s Food Poisoning Outbreak: Reaping What It Has Sown; Forbes (June 1, 2011): | |||
IRRADIATION IS ANOTHER IMPORTANT FOOD SAFETY TOOL, one that is safe and effective but that has been vastly under-used, largely due to opposition from the organic food lobby and to government over-regulation. “If even 50% of meat and poultry consumed in the United States were irradiated, the potential impact of food borne disease would be a reduction [of] 900,000 cases and 300 deaths,” according to Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Read more here.... |
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| Case studies in novel food processing technologies: Innovations in processing, packaging, and predictive modelling | |||
“Case studies in novel food processing technologies: Innovations in processing, packaging, and predictive modelling” is now available from wholesalers, retailers, and online suppliers in North America. This is the latest book with updates on developments in food irradiation. The book will be a great addition to your library. Learn more here: | |||
| Food Irradiation Processing Alliance (FIPA) Website: http://www.fipa.us/ | |||
| International Irradiation Association (iiA) Website: http://www.iiaglobal.org/ | |||
| Food Irradiation Principles and Applications is an excellent source of information about food irradiation. For information go to: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471356344,descCd-tableOfContents.html | |||
| Irradiated Foods Booklet Provides Science-based Information on Food Irradiation: The American Council on Science & Health booklet on irradiated foods can be downloaded from: http://www.acsh.org/publications/booklets/irradiated2003.html . | |||
Food Irradiation: A Guide for Consumers, Policy Makers and the Media; |
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