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FOOD IRRADIATION UPDATES |
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| February | January | December |
| February 28, 2003 | January 20, 2003 | December 26, 2002 |
| February 21, 2003 | January 13, 2003 | December 13, 2002 |
| February 15, 2003 | January 10, 2003 | December 7, 2002 |
| January 3, 2003 | ||
| November | October | September |
| November 26, 2002 | October 25, 2002 | September 27, 2002 |
| November 20, 2002 | October 2, 2002 | |
| November 15, 2002 | ||
| November 8, 2002 | ||
| November 1, 2002 | ||
| Current Months | ||
FOOD
IRRADIATION UPDATE
FEBRUARY 28, 2003
Food
Irradiation Update is published by the Minnesota Beef Council
U.S. Army Renews
Irradiation Deal With Food Technology Service
Before
Pasteurization of Milk, Bovine TB Used to Kill Humans
Public
Citizen Renews Push for Irradiation Moratorium
Upcoming
Irradiation Workshop in Portland, Oregon
The Dirt on
Dirt:
Getting Down to the Nitty-gritty: Just how clean is our
food?
World
Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003 at Chicago
U.S.
Army Renews Irradiation Deal With Food Technology Service:
www.meatingplace.com
by Dan Murphy (February 24, 2003) Mulberry,
Fla.-based Food Technology Service Inc. and the U.S. Army Soldier and Biological
Chemical Command have renewed an on-going Cooperative Research and Development
Agreement through 2008, according to a news release.
Under the agreement, Food Technology Service irradiates packaged and unpackaged
food products for testing by the Army's Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass.
As part of the agreement, the company irradiates a variety of entrees eaten by
the space shuttle astronauts.
Before
Pasteurization of Milk, Bovine TB Used to Kill Humans
(February 28, 2003) The Northwest Evening Mail via FSNET http://www.nwemail.co.uk/A2hrhe.HTM
In the 1930s bovine tuberculosis was a significant human disease in Great
Britain, with 50,000 cases and 2,500 deaths per year. When milk pasteurization was introduced in the 1950s and 60s this dropped
dramatically.
There
are now around 50 cases seen in Britain each year - with the majority affecting
people aged over 55. These people are thought to have been infected before pasteurization
was introduced. Government milk hygiene regulations require that
all herds selling raw milk for drinking be officially TB-free. Milk from herds
under bovine TB restrictions must be pasteurized, which deactivates the M
Bovis organism.
The
United Kingdom Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says carcasses
are inspected at slaughter and those with signs of generalized infection be
fully condemned and declared unfit for human consumption.
Public
Citizen Renews Push for Irradiation Moratoriam:
(February 28, 2003): by daniel
yovich for www.meatingplace.com
Citing a European scientific study, Public Citizen on Thursday (Feb. 27) renewed
its campaign to get the Food and Drug Administration to rescind its approval for
irradiation treatment of Beef, pork, poultry, eggs and vegetables.
In public comments filed with the FDA, the activist group also asked the FDA to
deny five pending requests to irradiate packaged deli meats, frozen meals and
snacks. Public Citizen bolstered its arguments by citing a study by French and
German scientists. Funded by the European Union, the study reportedly concluded
irradiation supposedly cause concentrations of chemicals called
2-alkylcyclobutanones, or 2-ACBs, which the scientists say causes colon cancer
in rats.
"This is a moment of truth, the FDA can either preserve or gamble with the
health of the American people," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public
Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "The wrong choice
could have serious, unintended consequences, particularly for children and other
vulnerable populations."
An FDA study published in June of 1998 says the agency finds the process safe
and effective. Before approving red meat irradiation, the agency reviewed
numerous scientific studies conducted worldwide. These included research on the
chemical effects of radiation on meat, the impact the process has on nutrient
content, and potential toxicity concerns.
The study notes irradiation's acceptance among a wide-variety or national and
international organizations, including the World Health Organization, the
International Atomic Energy Agency, the American Medical Association, and the
American Dietetic Association.
Trade groups such as the National Meat Association, the Grocery Manufacturers of
America, and the National Food Processors Association also support irradiation.
FDA spokespersons declined to comment on Public Citizen's filings. Industry
trade organizations contacted by Meatingplace.com said they were unaware of the
development.
"Having just learned of this EU study, and the action taken by the European
Parliament, NMA awaits impartial scientific evaluation of the study, as well as
the response of the FDA in this matter," said Kiran Kernellu, spokesperson
for the NMA.
Late last year, Public Citizen ran a five-week campaign against the use of
irradiated meat in public schools targeting the Agriculture Department's plan to
include irradiated beef in its School Lunch Program. The organization flooded
USDA with comments against the inclusion of irradiated meat in school lunches,
but the Agriculture Department ignored the campaign.
Upcoming Irradiation Workshop in Oregon
–The Oregon Beef Council is hosting an Irradiation Workshop Tuesday March 4
from 9:30 am - 2:30 pm at the Food Innovation Center located at 1207 NW Naito
Parkway in Portland. Speakers and
presentations will include: Dr. Emilio DeBess, Oregon Department of Health,
Michelle Torno, R.D. MN Beef Council and Ron Eustice, Exec. Dir., MN Beef
Council. Space is limited, only those with reservations will be able to attend.
Please call Oregon Beef Council office at 503/274-2333 to reserve your spot. Contact
Dianne Byrne Johnston at Dianne@orbeef.org or Ron Eustice at reustice@mnbeef.orbis.net
The
Dirt on Dirt:
Getting
Down to the Nitty-gritty: Just how clean is our food? (February 23, 2003) Pioneer
Press
by Kay Harvey
You'll
eat a pound of dirt in your lifetime Most of us have heard that bit of folk
wisdom. But should we believe it?
Nope.
Now, the gritty truth: A pound is just the appetizer. 'We actually eat more than
a pound of dirt in our lifetime,' says Susan Moores, a St. Paul dietitian and
spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. 'Probably several pounds,
depending on how long an individual lives.'
It's
a tough thing to swallow. But the good news is dirt probably won't hurt you —
depending on what you call dirt. Put it this way: Typical Minnesota soil won't
hurt you, soil and food experts say. Unless it's contaminated by things you
really don't want to read about over your morning coffee.
Dirt
is hardly the lone substance invading our culinary turf. It's virtually
impossible to get all the foreign objects out of food on its way to processing,
according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. So, the FDA has settled on
monitoring what it considers acceptable levels of unappetizing offenders.
Here's
your official warning: Do not continue reading this story if you're eating.
In
processed cornmeal, for example, FDA guidelines allow one or more whole insects,
50 or more insect fragments, two or more rodent hairs and one or more rodent
excreta per 50 grams. In a can of peaches, 3 percent of the fruit can be moldy
or wormy. And canned mushrooms will pass inspection if they have no more than an
average 20 or more maggots per 100 grams.
Surprised?
So was Jay Bell, now a faculty member in the University of Minnesota's College
of Agriculture, when he once worked at a job counting tomatoes before they were
shipped.
"It
was my job to count the maggots, too," he says. "It was pretty amazing
how high they'd let the number go."
But
bugs and worms won't hurt you, either, he says. In many cultures, people eat
insects. And in many packaged products, they are exposed to heat — which kills
disease-producing organisms — during processing. As a professor of soil
science, Bell has the dirt on dirt, too. For those who don't make a distinction,
he likes to establish the difference between soil and dirt.
"Soil
is a living body that occurs on the surface of the Earth," he explains.
"It has to be able to support plant material, and it usually has something
growing in it. Once you remove it from the surface of the Earth, it's dirt. Dirt
is what you have under your fingernail."
And
on some of your vegetables when you pick them out at the supermarket produce
counter.
Unlike
soil, which is full of nutrients, dirt no longer supports organic matter so has
lost most of its nutritional value. That indicates it's low in calories, if that
helps anyone to better accept it as part of the standard American diet. Some
mothers have been known to tell their children not to complain about a little
dirt on their veggies because dirt has minerals in it. But Bell doubts there's
much nutritional value in dirt.
"Whether
it's got minerals in it or not, it probably just passes through the human
body," he says. "I doubt the minerals are available in a way that's
going to do you much good."
Dirt
is most likely to cross one's palate when eating root vegetables, especially
those with crevices in them, such as potatoes and carrots, food experts say.
It's also common in leafy greens, such as lettuce and spinach, which tend to
collect blowing soil and retain it when they are pulled out of the ground.
"Almost
any fresh fruit or vegetable is going to catch some dirt," says Moores, the
dietitian. "I made a tuna salad the other day, and the celery was just
stuffed with mud." She did her best to wash the mud off, a practice she
advocates.
Soil
and dirt aren't the only substances that get on food. "Dirt" on food
is to most people "anything we're not planning on," says Donald Vesley
of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. He agrees that inert
particles of dirt carrying nothing dangerous are probably irrelevant.
"What's
of most concern would be pathogenic organisms, bacteria or viruses," he
says.
Pathogens
— microorganisms able to cause disease — are the real bad guys. They can be
present in raw food or make their way onto food during processing and handling.
Publicized
cases of food contamination in the manufacturing, restaurant and cruise-ship
industries have brought the topic of food safety to the dinner table, says
Vesley, a professor in the division of environmental and occupational health.
He
emphasizes the importance of hand washing before eating or preparing food;
keeping kitchen tools sanitized; cooking hamburger, poultry, pork, fish and eggs
thoroughly; and storing perishable foods properly.
"Keep
it hot, keep it cold, or don't keep it," he advises. But there are two
schools of thought on the subject of the zealous washing of fresh fruits and
vegetables. One is that ingesting normal nonfood substances can help the body
build up immunities to some diseases. The other is that dirt on food can hurt
you and you'd better scrub those potatoes with a vengeance.
Bell,
the soil science professor, says he doesn't wash his fresh produce particularly
ambitiously. "My wife does," he says. "She likes to have it as
clean as possible. But I don't. I don't see a problem with it."
World Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003
at Chicago: The World Irradiation Congress is scheduled
for May 5 to 7, 2003, at Chicago's McCormick Place. The international event will
provide a comprehensive technical and scientific forum to promote the technology
and benefits of food irradiation around the globe. The congress will examine the
future of food irradiation in a comprehensive program that includes analysis of
the: Global situation and outlook on the use of irradiation as a sanitary and
phytosanitary treatment; Major markets and market trends; Technological
developments, such as irradiation facilities and quality assurance; Investment
opportunities; A visit to a commercial food irradiator; a buyer-seller business
conference and technical sessions.
The keynote speaker on May 5 (Monday) will be Dr. Elsa Murano, USDA
Undersecretary for Food Safety, speaking on "Food safety from farm to fork:
the role of food irradiation."
Other top speakers include the CEOS of FMI and GMA; the presidents of IFT and
the International Union of Food Science and Technology; the director of National
Food Safety & Toxicology Center at Michigan State University; and top
officials from the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, the International Consultative Group on Food
Irradiation, the Minnesota Beef Council and such companies as Huisken Meat Co.,
International Dairy Queen Inc., Food Technology Service Inc. and Hawaii Pride
Inc.
For
more information and to register, contact:
The
National Food Safety & Toxicology Center
Michigan
State University
165
Food Safety & Toxicology Building
Michigan
State University
East
Lansing, MI 48824-1302
517/432-3100
Website: www.foodsafe.msu.edu/Congress/congress.html
or www.foodsafe.msu.edu.
Updated List of
Restaurants and Retailers Marketing Irradiated Ground Beef
(Supermarkets
and Restaurants added since November 28, 2002---Updated
February28, 2003)
Tops
Markets based in Amherst, NY, began
selling fresh irradiated ground beef in mid January. Tops is selling both 85
percent lean and 90 percent lean irradiated fresh ground beef. The irradiated
meat will make up about 5 percent of the ground beef offered at Tops, according
to the Amherst-based company. Tops Markets, LLC is one of six
retail operating companies under Ahold USA, one of the leading supermarket
operations in the U.S. Tops currently operates 156 Tops Friendly Markets
in New York, Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio.
Giant
Eagle Inc. began offering irradiated ground beef
on Jan. 12th. Giant Eagle, Inc., ranked 22 on Forbes magazine's largest private
corporations list and recently named Progressive Grocer's Retailer of the
Year, is one of the nation's largest food retailers and food distributors with
over $4.4 billion in annual sales. Founded in 1931, Giant Eagle, Inc. has
grown to be the number one supermarket retailer in the region with 124 corporate
and 89 independently owned and operated stores throughout western
Pennsylvania, Ohio, north central West Virginia, and Maryland. Giant Eagle is
the first in that region to offer irradiated meat products in the form of 80
percent lean/20 percent fat and 93 percent lean/7 percent fat ground beef.
Educational point-of-purchase brochures and signs introduced meat department
customers to the concept and safety benefits of irradiated ground beef, nattily
packaged in opaque, one-pound tubes similar to ready-to-bake cookie dough.
Schnuck
Markets Inc. became the first supermarket chain in
the St. Louis area on January 13th to sell irradiated fresh ground beef and
frozen beef patties. Schnucks is selling fresh ground beef chubs
("chub" refers to the plastic packaging, similar to that of pork
sausage) supplied by Excel, a subsidiary of Cargill of Wichita, KS and frozen
beef patties which come from Huiskens of Sauk Rapids, Minn. The SureBeam
Corporation of San Diego, Calif. will irradiate the ground beef and beef patties
in their Sioux City, Iowa facility. Schnucks
first offered SureBeam irradiated
ground beef in its Peoria and Pekin, Ill. stores last winter. While sales of the
product met Schnucks expectations, a company spokesman says education is the key
to greater acceptance.
Schnuck
Markets, Inc. currently operates 102 stores and 93 pharmacies in Missouri,
Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Mississippi. This includes five
stores that operate as Logli Supermarkets and a stand-alone Sentry drug store.
Schnuck Markets, Inc. is currently ranked 83rd in the Forbes Magazine
listing of the nation's "Top 500 Private Companies."
Publix
supermarkets
began selling New Generation brand irradiated frozen ground beef patties,
boneless chicken breasts and chicken tenders from Colorado Boxed Beef Company on
January 13th. The Lakeland, Fla.-based chain will also consider offering fresh
irradiated products in the future. New Generation-brand products are processed
by Food Technology Service Inc., a Mulberry, Fla.-based, gamma-source
irradiation facility. Publix, with 711 stores in Florida, Georgia, South
Carolina, Alabama and in Tennessee later this year, is owned by its more than
119,000 employees and posted 2001 sales of $15.3 billion. www.publix.com.
Safeway
Eastern Division
began offering fresh irradiated ground beef on January 27th at all
136 supermarkets in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Washington, D.C. Safeway's
Eastern Division employs approximately 11,000 people and operates 136 stores,
including 16 in the District of Columbia, 75 in Maryland, 44 in Virginia and one
in Delaware.
Dierbergs
Markets
of St. Louis, MO added two new electronically irradiated fresh ground beef items
to its meat department on February 1, 2003. Dierbergs new items, a fresh
93-percent lean ground beef and an 85-percent lean ground round, which are
supplied by Excel, from its processing plant in Dodge City, Kan. Dierbergs
operate 19 stores in the St. Louis area.
Weis
Markets, Inc.
became
the first retailer in Central Pennsylvania to market irradiated ground beef in
the Central Pennsylvania area on February 2nd. The
irradiated fresh ground beef will be provided by SureBeam Corp., packaged in 1
pound trays - 85 percent lean and 1 pound packages - 93 percent lean patties. Founded
in 1912, Weis Markets currently operates 160 stores in six states: Pennsylvania,
Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and West Virginia.
Giant
Food Stores, based in Carlisle, Pennsylvania on
February 3, 2003, joined the rapidly growing list of retailers offering SureBeam
processed fresh ground beef. Giant is offering irradiated fresh ground beef
in one-pound packages of 85-percent and 93-percent lean. The chain
operates a total of 113 stores in four states, under the name GIANT Food Stores
in Pennsylvania, and under the name MARTIN'S Food Markets in Maryland, Virginia,
West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. GIANT Food Stores is a part of
Royal Ahold, a Netherlands based company. Ahold is a leading food provider in
the United States and elsewhere with total sales of approximately USD 52
billion. Over 60% of its worldwide sales are currently generated in the
United States. GIANT Food Stores, LLC employs over 20,000.
ShopRite
supermarkets of Edison, NJ, the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United
States began selling SureBeam processed fresh ground beef products in one-pound
case-ready packages of 85-percent and 93-percent lean, as well as one- and
three-pound chub packages in 85-percent and 93-percent lean on February 5, 2003.
From
a small, struggling cooperative with seven members – all owners of their own
grocery stores – Wakefern has grown into the largest retailer-owned
cooperative in the United States and one of the largest employers in New Jersey.
The cooperative is comprised of 38 members who individually own and operate
supermarkets under the ShopRite banner. Today, Wakefern Food Corporation, the
merchandising and distribution arm of the company, and the 200 ShopRite stores
located throughout New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware,
employs more than 40,000 people. In 1999, America’s Second Harvest recognized
ShopRite as the Grocery Distributor of the year.
Associated
Wholesalers, Inc.,
based in Robesonia, Pennsylvania, began offering SureBeam processed fresh ground
beef products in one-pound case-ready packages of 85-percent and 93-percent
lean, and 93-percent lean patties on February 12, 2003. Currently, 52 central
Pennsylvania stores offer case-ready fresh ground beef processed with electron
beam technology.
Associated Wholesalers, Inc. operates as a cooperative food distributor and related products provider. The company also operates facilities in York, Pennsylvania and Scranton, Pennsylvania with customers located in seven states including Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, New York, and New Jersey. Member/shareholders operate supermarkets, superettes, convenience stores, mass discounters and other retail formats.
Foodtown
located
in New Jersey and New York introduced irradiated fresh ground beef at all stores
in January. Foodtown operates stores in eastern New Jersey, Long Island,
the Bronx and the Westchester/Yonkers area.
Stop
& Shop, Inc. operates 326 supermarkets
in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey. Stop &
Shop is a multibillion-dollar corporation and the largest food retailer in New
England and employs 41,000 associates in its network of stores, distribution
centers, manufacturing plants and offices, which stretch across more than 180
communities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Rhode
Island.
Copps Food Markets of Wisconsin has begun to market
irradiated ground beef at all 21 stores.
Lombardi
Brothers Meats of Minneapolis foodservice provider is marketing
two irradiated ground beef products. Lombardi markets a 2:1 (1/2 pound) and a
3:1 (1/3 pound) ground beef products.
Performance
Food Group
(PFG), Richmond, Virginia has become the nation’s first foodservice provider
to market their own private-label line of irradiated frozen ground beef
products. PFG will offer 10 skus at the onset. The new products will be packed
under PFG’s West Creek label by Rochester Meats and boasts a new trademarked
“Smart Shield” food safety logo. Product launch is scheduled for
mid-February.
Chronological
List of Restaurants and Retailers Marketing Irradiated Ground Beef:
Huisken
Meat Company of
Sauk Rapids, MN began marketing frozen irradiated patties in May 2000. From an
initial distribution of 84 stores in the Twin Cities, distribution has grown to
thousands of stores in 30+ states. Huisken reported sales growth of 35 percent
in 2001 compared to 2000 and a 25 percent increase through June 2002. Huisken
Meat Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of JNR Holding Company, which also
owns Rochester Meat Company in Rochester, MN and Whiteford Food Products, Inc.
at Versailles, OH. Huiskens may be contacted at (320) 259-0305.
SuperValu
based in Eden Prairie, MN was one of the first supermarket chains in the US to
offer irradiated ground beef when they introduced Huisken BeSure irradiated
patties in the Twin Cities on May 16, 2000. SuperValu is one of the largest
companies in the United States grocery channel. With annual revenues in excess
of $20 billion, Supervalu holds leading market share positions with its 1,260
retail grocery locations, including licensed Save-A-Lot locations. In addition,
the company provides distribution and related logistics support services to
approximately 4,280 grocery retail outlets.
Rainbow
Foods, a
Fleming Company based in Minneapolis, with 42 stores in Minnesota and 2 in
Wisconsin, shared the honor of being first to offer Huisken BeSure irradiated
patties in the Twin Cities area. Rainbow has offered Huisken BeSure irradiated
patties (90/10 and regular ground beef) since May 16, 2000. Rainbow also markets
SureBeam processed papaya.
Cub
Foods based in
Stillwater, MN, was one of the first retailers in the US to offer irradiated
ground beef when they introduced Huisken BeSure irradiated patties in the Twin
Cities on May 16, 2000. Cub Foods has stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois
and Colorado.
Schwan's
based in Marshall, MN, began to sell irradiated frozen patties nationwide
through home delivery in late May 2000. All fresh/frozen ground beef at
Schwan’s is irradiated. Schwan’s markets irradiated ground chuck and quarter
pound patties in 3 pound packages. For delivery of Schwan’s irradiated burgers
to your doorstep phone; 1.888. Schwans or log on to www.schwans.com.
Nash Finch based
in Minneapolis, MN began marketing Huisken BeSure irradiated beef patties during
the summer of 2000. Nash Finch Company is one of the leading food retail
and distribution companies in the United States, with over $4.1 billion in
annual revenues. Nash Finch owns and operates a base of 112 retail stores,
principally supermarkets under the AVANZA,
Buy·n·Save, Econofoods and Sun Mart trade names. In addition to its
retail operations, Nash Finch Company's food distribution business serves
independent retailers and military commissaries in 28 states, the District of
Columbia and Europe.
Omaha Steaks
has marketed irradiated frozen patties since the summer of 2000. All ground beef
from Omaha Steaks is SureBeam processed. To place an order for Omaha Steaks’
irradiated burgers phone 1.800.228.9872 or by logging on at www.omahasteaks.com.
W.W.
Johnson, a
Minneapolis-based private label foodservice company established in 1946, began
to offer SureBeam
processed fresh
irradiated ground beef in patties and 10 pound rolls in May 2001. W.W. Johnson
private labels fresh ground beef for national and regional foodservice
distributors and chains including Sysco, US Foodservice, Rhinehart, Upper Lakes
Foods and Fraboni's. Sales of irradiated product through W.W. Johnson are coast
to coast and expanding steadily. About 10 percent of W.W. Johnson’s production
is irradiated. Contact W.W. Johnson at 1.612.721.6792.
Sysco: Currently 28 Sysco Foodservice Distribution
Centers are offering SureBeam processed ground beef to various foodservice
establishments. Some
of the areas with irradiated ground beef are Portland, ME; Kent, WA; Billings,
MT; Milwaukee, WI, Cleveland and Cincinnati, OH.
Winn Dixie based in Jacksonville, Florida operates
1060 stores in the Southeast and began marketing Huisken BeSure
irradiated patties in late 2001 and early 2002.
Kroger
began marketing Excel’s “Fairfield Farms” fresh ground beef at about a
dozen stores in February 2002 in the Peoria, Illinois area.
Schnuck's
stores in Illinois and Missouri began marketing Excel’s “Fairfield Farms”
fresh ground beef in February 2002 and in February 2003 expanded the offering of
irradiated ground beef to include fresh ground beef chubs ("chub"
refers to the plastic packaging, similar to that of pork sausage) supplied by
Excel, a of Wichita, Kan subsidiary of Minnesota-based Cargill.
Dairy Queen
based in Edina, MN began a test at two stores (Hutchinson and Spicer, MN) in
February 2002, and is now offering SureBeam processed irradiated
patties at nearly 100 Minnesota and South Dakota stores following a very
successful expansion in Central Minnesota (May) and the Twin Cities area
(July/August). The number of Dairy Queens offering SureBeam processed ground
beef from Birchwood Foods (Kenosha Beef) is steadily expanding. Dairy Queen’s
impressive point of sale materials including tray liners, table tents and
signage are a model for all restaurants to follow.
Wegmans Food Markets, based in Rochester, N.Y. in May 2002,
became the first supermarket chain in the nation to introduce irradiated fresh
ground beef under its own private-label brand—Wegmans Brand Irradiated Fresh
Ground Beef. The new line, produced at Excel Corp.'s Dodge City, Kan. plant, is
available in 90/10 (90 percent lean/10 percent fat) and 80/20 packages, and is
selling for 10 to 30 cents more a pound than ordinary fresh ground beef. Wegmans
currently operates 64 stores in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and
irradiated product is now being sold at all of its stores, Wegmans is no
newcomer in offering irradiated products. In May 2001, it introduced Fairview
Farms irradiated frozen ground beef patties, and its also carries a few
irradiated produce items in select stores. Wegmans reports that 15% of their
ground beef sales are irradiated with individual stores reporting that sales of
irradiated product are 45% of ground beef sales.
Lowes
Foods,
based in Winston-Salem, N.C. began offering SureBeam processed irradiated fresh,
ground beef to consumers at 48 of its 105 stores in early September 2002.
Products are being offered in 1-pound packages of 93-percent lean ground beef
and in 93-percent lean ground-beef patties.
D'Agostino Supermarkets in September, began offering
SureBeam processed irradiated fresh ground beef in several case-ready product
formats. This chain operates 23 stores in New York City and suburban Westchester
County.
Pathmark Supermarkets, one of the top 15 supermarket
retailers in the countries with stores in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
announced it would sell SureBeam processed irradiated fresh ground beef in
several case-ready offerings early in October.
Farm
Fresh Supermarkets
of Hampton Roads, Virginia in October became the first food retailer in that
area to offer case-ready fresh ground beef processed with SureBeam Corp.'s
electron-beam food irradiation technology. A SuperValu Company, Farm
Fresh has 37 stores located throughout Hampton Roads.
Farm Fresh is selling its irradiated, fresh ground beef in five packages--1 and
3-pound packages in 80-percent and 93-percent lean, as well as 1-pound packages
in 85-percent lean.
Champps: Two Milwaukee area Champps began serving SureBeam processed
irradiated ground beef in September 2002.
L
& L Packing Company
based in Chicago markets Quintessence Foods SureBeam processed frozen patties
known as “Grandma Burgers.”
Price Chopper based in Schenectady, N.Y. began selling irradiated fresh-ground beef in four varieties that includes 1- and 3-pound packages of 80-percent and 93-percent lean during October 2002. Price Chopper operates 102 stores system-wide and is a leading food retailer in a six state region including New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and Pennsylvania.
Hy-Vee
Supermarkets began
selling SureBeam processed irradiated fresh ground beef from IBP on October 14,
2002 in five packages: 85- and 90-percent lean tray packs, 85- and 90-percent
lean rolls and 93-percent lean patties. Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee is one of
the nation's top 15 supermarket retailers and operates 188 stores in Iowa,
Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota.
Clemens
Family Markets
of Philadelphia, with 19 stores in Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware
Counties in Pennsylvania, began to offer SureBeam-processed case-ready fresh
ground beef in late October. Clemens
is selling SureBeam processed fresh ground beef in one-pound case-ready packages
in 85-percent, 90-percent and 93-percent lean. Their case-ready packages
provide the customer a complete view of the product through a clear cellophane
covering. Clemens is a family-owned, regional supermarket business currently
celebrating their 63rd year
in business.
Giant
Foods of Landover, MD became the first food retailer in the
Baltimore-Washington, D.C., to offer irradiated fresh ground beef on November 5,
2002. Giant stores are selling two SureBeam-labeled irradiated ground beef
products: 93 percent lean and 85 percent lean.
Giant Food, a member of the Ahold USA group, operates
189 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and the District of
Columbia and employs more than 27,000 associates.
Fresh
Brands, Inc. a
supermarket retailer and grocery wholesaler based in Wisconsin, in December 2002,
began offering fresh irradiated ground beef through
corporate-owned retail, franchised and independent supermarkets. Stores are
located throughout Wisconsin and northern Illinois under the Piggly Wiggly and
Dick's Supermarkets brands. Fresh Brands currently has 74 franchised
Piggly Wiggly supermarkets, 27 corporate-owned Piggly Wiggly and Dick's
Supermarkets and two distribution centers. The company controls nearly $1
billion in retail grocery sales.
Embers America Inc.,
a St. Paul, MN-based chain of full-service, family-style restaurants, has
introduced a line of irradiated hamburgers.
The famous Ember Burger is now irradiated. The
family-owned company, has 65 restaurants that are mostly franchisee operated,
and has branches throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa. Embers
America is the first full-service restaurant chain to offer irradiated meat.
Lunds/Byerly’s based in Edina, MN introduced Fairfield Farms brand fresh
irradiated ground chuck at all locations in early November 2002. Lunds/Byerly’s
was one of the first supermarket chains to sell Huisken BeSure irradiated
patties in May 2000. Byerly’s operates 11 stores in the Twin Cities and one in
St. Cloud. Lund’s has 8 stores in the Twin Cities area.
Jewel-Osco,
a 191-store unit of Boise, Idaho-based Albertson's Inc., started selling
irradiated ground beef at Chicago stores and some other locations on November
13th.
Hannaford
and Shop'n Save Supermarkets based in Scarborough, Maine began
offering case-ready irradiated fresh ground beef in 117 stores in Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, New York and Massachusetts in early November. The irradiated
product is offered in 93% and 85% lean fresh ground beef products in 1-lb.,
case-ready packages.
Pick
'n Save, the
retail division of Roundy's Inc., based in Pewaukee, WI, began offering a
limited supply of one-pound packs of irradiated fresh ground beef in November
2003. Nine other Pick 'n Save stores are also participating in the test sale.
Tim Wade, vice president of perishables for Pick 'n Save's parent, was quoted as
saying, "We felt these markets were a good cross section of
Wisconsin."
Food Irradiation Education Activities:
The Minnesota Beef Council, in cooperation with SureBeam Corporation will
be assisting with, conducting or participating in the following irradiation
education activities:
Minneapolis, MN; February 23-25, UP Show (Upper Midwest Hospitality Show)
Portland, OR; March 4, 2003: Oregon Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Raleigh, NC; March 19, 2003: North Carolina Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Texarkana, AR; April 5-6: American National CattleWomen Region IV Workshop
Harrisburg, PA; April 23-24, 2003: Central Atlantic States' Association of Food
and Drug Officials
Monterey, CA: April 28-29: American National CattleWomen Region VI Workshop
Bismarck, ND: April 30, 2003: North Dakota Long Term Care Association Convention
St.
Cloud, MN; May 1-2, 2003: Minnesota Dietetic Association Conference
Great Falls, MT; May 2-4: American National CattleWomen Region V Workshop
Chicago, IL; May 5-7, 2003: First World Conference on Food Irradiation
Ft. Pierre, SD; June 20-22: American National CattleWomen Region VII Workshop
Green Bay, WI; July 13-15, 2003: National Association of County Agricultural
Agents
Jasper, IN; Sept. 23, 2003: Indiana Environmental Health Association Conference
Ronald
F. Eustice
Executive Director
Minnesota Beef Council
2850 Metro Drive # 426
Bloomington, MN 55425
USA
Phone: 952/854-6980
Fax: 952/854-6906
Website:
www.mnbeef.org
1
FOOD
IRRADIATION UPDATE
Food
Irradiation Update is published by the
News
Watch: Irradiated Ground Beef Sold in More Stores
SureBeam Represents the State-of-the-Art in Electron
Beam Food Irradiation
New
Cold Storage Facility in Northeast to Offer Irradiation to the Food Industry
Performance
Food Group Introduces Irradiated Line: Private-label Food Safety Logo
Where’s
the (Irradiated) Beef?
Health
Upcoming
Irradiation Workshop in Portland, Oregon
World Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003 at
Chicago
Food
Irradiation Education Activities
News Watch: Irradiated Ground Beef Sold in More
Stores; More Retailers Sell Irradiated Ground Beef;
Supermarket News (February 10, 2003) NEW YORK -- From New England to
Missouri to Pennsylvania, additional retailers are now offering irradiated,
fresh ground beef processed by SureBeam
Corp. Giant Foods,
Surebeam Represents the State-of-the-Art in
Electron Beam Food Irradiation:
Agri-Marketing
magazine (February 2003) by Linda Leake, Contributing Editor:
Meet SureBeam Corporation,
a relatively new name in the field of food irradiation technology, but still a
seasoned and capable player. The firm was created in August 2000 when Titan
Corporation,
Under Oberkfell's leadership, SureBeam established its strategic direction and
completed its Initial Public Offering (IPO) on
According to Dan Henroid, director of
"We compete against several companies seeking to address the food safety
market, including firms offering gamma ray Cobalt 60 technology and alternatives
to irradiation, such as thermal sterilization, fumigation and chemical
washes," Oberkfell says. "However, we are the only company dedicated
exclusively to electron beam and X-ray system solutions in the
Unique Distinctions
Unquestionably, SureBeam built the nation's first electron beam facility
dedicated to meat, poultry and other food products (in Sioux City, Iowa). The
first electronically irradiated beef product sold commercially, marketed by
Huisken Meat Company, Sauk Rapids, Minn., was processed with SureBeam
technology. SureBeam also built the nation's first commercial X-ray facility in
Beginning
in late summer of 2002, SureBeam's momentum began to accelerate in the
"This was driven in part by the growing consumer demand for food safety due
to the heightened awareness since Sept. 11, as well as the USDA's own admission
last September that E. coli 0157:H7 is now believed to be more prevalent
than originally thought," Oberkfell says.
Currently,
SureBeam irradiated fresh ground beef is sold in at least 1,400 stores primarily
in the
SureBeam
has contracts with most of the nation's largest meat suppliers, plus other
commodity suppliers, such as Iowa Beef Processors and Cargill. All of this is
done with three food irradiation centers in the
According to Oberkfell, SureBeam's worldwide market is about 1.8 trillion pounds
within five major target categories: ground beef, poultry, processed meats,
seafood, and fruit and vegetables. The
New
Patent
On
"This patent further strengthens SureBeam's position as a leader in
electron beam and X-ray technology," says Oberkfell. "This is
particularly important since processing plants produce many different products
and packages in the same production runs."
For
its "great step" into food safety, SureBeam's technology is the winner
of Food Processing Magazine's "Innovation Award" for 2001.
SureBeam is also ranked by Deloitte and Touche as the 37th fastest-growing
technology company in the Orange County/San Diego region for 2002.
Oberkfell is enthusiastic about the future. "We're a new company
introducing a new technology into the food market," he says. "We have
made progress in the early stages of our growth, including gaining consumer and
retailer acceptance as well as building our brand awareness. There is enormous
potential before us, and we will measure our success over time.
"On
the day of SureBeam's IPO, one newspaper editorial referred to our company as
'the baby put out in the snowstorm'," Oberkfell says. "We have great
customer partners and a growing support network for our technology, so we feel
this infant has great prospects to grow up into a healthy adult." Freelance
journalist Linda L. Leake follows technology developments from her home base in
Cold
Storage Facility in Northeast to Offer Irradiation to the Food Industry:
(February 18, 2003) From a Press Release
CFC Logistics, Quakertown, Pa.-based cold storage facility, broke ground for the
installation of a new type of cobalt-60 irradiator. This irradiator will be
dedicated to meet the needs of the food industry in the Northeast Services
provided will meet the requirements for maintaining the cold chain of all
segments of the food industry including meat, poultry, fruits and vegetables,
and spices, manufactures, and retailers. "This provides a unique service
offering for food companies in the Northeast who wish to irradiate their food
and perishable products," said Jim Wood, President of CFC Logistics, Inc.
The facility will use the Genesis Irradiator(tm), designed by GrayStar, Inc. of
CFC Logistics, Inc.,
is a subsidiary of the Clemens Family Corporation of
Performance
Food Group Introduces Irradiated Line: Private-label Sports Food Safety
Logo: ID
Management Report (February 6, 2003): www.foodservicetoday.com
Performance
Food Group (PFG),
No.
3 in ID’s Top 50, the regional distributor will offer some 10 skus at the
outset. The new products will be packed under PFG's West Creek label by
Rochester Meats and will boast a new trademarked Smart Shield food safety logo.
The irradiation process utilized will be SureBeam Corp.'s electron beam
technology, also known as cold pasteurization.
Smart
Shield product selections will include six skus of 100 percent pure ground beef
patties, three skus of 100-percent USDA Black Angus premium patties, and one sku
of 100-percent bulk ground beef.
The food safety
benefits will be extremely advantageous for customers, PFG points
out At the same time, operators will be able to choose between
advertising the benefits or taking a more low-key approach-whichever makes them
more comfortable.
Some 800 DSRs will
undergo training on how to sell the line, which will launch in mid-February. DSR
support materials will include: a manual on key features, benefits and selling
strategies; an updated West Creek ground beef brochure with a special section on
Smart Shield products; Smart Shield table tents, Smart Shield frequently asked
question (FAQ) brochures for dispersal to operators for their own customer
education efforts; and West Creek Smart Shield coupons offering customer rebates
of up to $150. By Stephanie Salkin
Where's
the (Irradiated) Beef?: Agri-Marketing
magazine (February 2003) by Linda Leake, Contributing Editor:
Getting it in Your
Grocery Store is Getting to be Big Business; You
may love to sink your chops into a thick, juicy hamburger, but how confident are
you in the safety of ground beef? According to Ipsos-Reid, a market research
firm based in
Those percentages are expected to rise in the years ahead, thanks to one of the
most newsworthy and sometimes controversial technologies of this new century -
food irradiation.
Radiation Is the Energy, Irradiation Is the Process
Food
irradiation is the process of exposing food to controlled levels of a particular
form of electromagnetic energy known as ionizing radiation. This term is used to
describe these rays of energy because they cause whatever material they contact
to produce electrically charged particles called ions.
Ionizing
radiation is a part of the spectrum of electromagnetic energy that includes a
type of energy similar to radio and television waves, microwaves and infrared
radiation. However, the higher frequency and hence higher amount of energy
produced by ionizing radiation allows it to penetrate deeply into food, killing
microorganisms without significantly raising the food's temperature.
Within approved dosages, irradiation has been shown to kill at least 99.9
percent of common foodborne pathogens such as E. coli 0157:H7, Salmonella (various
species) and others, making hamburger, poultry, processed meats, eggs and
produce safer for consumers, while reducing liability for sellers.
Irradiation disrupts the DNA strands in pathogenic microorganisms, such as
bacteria, yeasts and molds, thereby either destroying the organism or preventing
its reproduction. Scientists often compare the process to thermal pasteurization
of milk.
Irradiation
also inactivates insect pests (particularly from fruits and vegetables) and
extends product shelf life. What's more, many people consider irradiation a more
desirable alternative to chemical or heat treatments to achieve these same
results because it leaves no residue or toxic by-products.
Making History
Following USDA's approval of a red meat irradiation protocol on
Wegmans Food Markets, based in
Now,
at least 30
The
Edina, Minn.-based International Dairy Queen became the first fast food chain in
the nation to include irradiated hamburger patties on its menu. More than 100
Dairy Queen franchises in
Setting
the Stage
After Nebraska's Hudson Foods' 1997 headline E. coli 0157:H7 ground beef
recall, Osterholm, as the Minnesota State Epidemiologist, contacted the
Minnesota Beef Council (MBC) and proposed that the Minnesota Department of
Health (MDH) and the MBC work together to make irradiated ground beef a
commercial reality.
Osterholm and the MBC began the education process by hosting a food safety
issues forum in November 1997. Forum participants learned about the history of
foodborne illnesses, food safety and irradiation technology. The benefits of and
objections to irradiation were also discussed. "The 'Minnesota Model' of
consumer education involving product sampling, informational workshops, press
releases and partnerships with public and private groups is serving as a
catalyst to expand the marketing of irradiated food nationwide and help make
ground beef and other foods some of the safest on the consumer's dinner
table," says Ron Eustice, MBC's executive director. Currently the MBC is
assisting about two dozen state beef councils, health departments and other
groups with educational workshops, product sampling and information
distribution.
"No opportunity was lost to present the facts and tell consumers about the
positive role that irradiation could play in stopping the spread of foodborne
disease in ground beef and other foods," Eustice adds. "The MBC, in
partnership with the MDH, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and other
supporters, put the critics on the defensive every time they came forward."
Market Misconceptions
Not surprisingly, there is some public concern about the use of irradiation on
food products.
A
small, but vocal minority of people do not believe that the quality and safety
of food remains unaltered after being exposed to radiant energy. Perhaps the
biggest misconception is that irradiation makes food radioactive, which simply
isn't true. However, reality suggests otherwise. Consider the facts:
* One billion lbs. of food products and ingredients are irradiated annually
worldwide(1);
* Ninety-seven million lbs. of food products are irradiated annually in the
* Five to 10 percent of all ground beef processed in the
"Demand for and availability of irradiated food is expected to rise,"
Eustice says, "due in large part to continued media coverage of
bioterrorism and meat recalls, which has heightened consumers' concerns about
food safety."
Moreover, according to the Centers for Disease Control, each year 76 million
Americans will contract a usually preventable foodborne illness; 325,000 of
those stricken will require hospitalization, and nearly 5,000 will die.
Research
studies have consistently shown that the key to consumer acceptance of
irradiation of food products is education, says Christine Bruhn, an Extension
consumer food marketing specialist with the University of California-Davis. Most
recently, a 2002 study conducted under the leadership of Kansas State University
ag economist Sean Fox reveals that information about irradiation has a
significant effect on attitudes toward the process.
"Only 32 percent of respondents who did not receive an informational
brochure with their survey form reported a positive attitude toward
irradiation," Fox relates. "Of those who received a brochure labeled
'Based on information provided by the food irradiation industry,' 66 percent
reported a positive attitude, while of those who received a brochure labeled
'Based on information provided by the Food and Drug Administration and the
United States Department of Agriculture' 76 percent reported a positive
attitude."
The bottom line, Fox summarizes, is that when given facts from reliable sources,
the majority of consumers have a favorable attitude about irradiation.
Irradiation
Choices
In
the
While these three types of ionizing radiation have the same effects on food,
there are some differences in how they work, says John Masefield, an executive
advisor with Steris/Isomedix Services, Inc., Menton, Ohio, and chairman of the
Food Irradiation Processing Alliance.
´´Gamma ray technology uses the radiation given off by a radioactive
substance, typically Cobalt 60, which is a radioactive isotope of the element
cobalt," Masefield explains. "Cobalt 60 gives off high energy photons,
called gamma rays, which can penetrate foods to a depth of several feet. It's
important to note that Cobalt 60 does not give off particulate radiation
(neutrons), which means it cannot make anything around it radioactive."
Electron
beam and X-ray irradiators - irradiation facilities - are operated by
electricity and do not use radioactive isotopes. The newest technology is X-ray
irradiation. "This is an outgrowth of e-beam technology and is still being
developed," Masefield mentions.
Several X-ray irradiation units have been built in recent years; however, some
experts feel this technology won't get widespread use for food irradiation.
That's because the higher electric power requirement will mean higher operating
costs compared to the other two technologies.
"Like cobalt gamma rays, X-rays can pass through thick foods, and require
heavy shielding for safety. However, like e-beams, the machine can be switched
on and off, and no radioactive substances are involved," Masefield
explains.
Regardless of the type of energy source used, the actual irradiation process
takes place at the food processing facility, after packaging in initial boxes or
final cartons, or at an irradiation service center.
Big
Business
Electron beam, X-ray and gamma ray food irradiation facilities are all
multimillion-dollar propositions. It is possible to install a small in-plant, or
even online, irradiation processing system, but the cost will still be at least
$2 million to $4 million, industry insiders say.
The cost per unit processed with these small systems is higher than the unit
processing costs in large irradiation facilities, due to lower throughputs -
fewer pounds of product irradiated per year. The increase in cost for irradiated
foods over non-irradiated ones is estimated at 2 to 3 cents per pound for fruits
and vegetables and 3 to 8 cents per pound for meat products.
Key
Players
Food Technology Service Inc., Mulberry, Fla., was the first irradiation company
in North America dedicated to the food market. Since 1993, Food Tech has been
using gamma irradiation to treat a wide variety of products including spices,
produce, poultry and food packaging.
Around 1994, Food Tech created the Nations Pride label to help food companies
bring irradiated products to market, including fresh and frozen poultry, fruits
and vegetables.
"In those early days, most companies didn't want it known that their
products were irradiated," says Jim Jones, Food Tech's vice president of
sales and marketing. "So we developed the Nations Pride label to provide
them with a marketing venue that allowed them to maintain their anonymity."
SureBeam
Corporation is currently the only U.S. company dedicated exclusively to
developing electron beam and X-ray irradiation systems. SureBeam owns and
operates three commercial irradiation centers in the United States, which are
located in Sioux City, Iowa, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
In addition to Food Tech and SureBeam, at least 16 companies are known to be
working on food irradiation processing or equipment manufacturing. The key
players include Ion Beam Applications, Oakbrook, Ill.; Gray Star Inc., Mt.
Arlington, N.J.; Revis Services/Puridec, United Kingdom; and Steris/Isomedix,
Menton, Ohio.
Prominent academic institutions that are making food irradiation research a high
priority include Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, which uses electron beams as
its irradiation energy source, and Texas A&M University (TAMU), College
Station, Texas. Collaborating with SureBeam Corporation, TAMU opened a $10
million research facility in May 2002, which features electron beam and X-ray
energy sources.
"Irradiation is the most extensively researched food treatment process in
the history of mankind," Masefield emphasizes.
Labeling
In
the United States, all electronically irradiated food, whether processed with
gamma rays, electron beams or X-rays must be labeled with the international
symbol for irradiation, known as the radura, along with one of several phrases
acceptable to FDA and USDA, such as Radiation" or "Treated by
Irradiation.
"If
the irradiated product is to be used as an ingredient in a further processed
product, the radura symbol or special labeling is not required unless the
irradiated ingredient is meat or poultry (i.e. "potatoes, irradiated ground
beef, natural flavors").
Retail food service providers are not required to disclose that their food
products have been irradiated. Nonetheless, Dairy Queen and Embers America
franchises make a point of letting customers know they serve irradiated ground
beef. This is accomplished with signs, table tents, tray liners and
informational brochures.
"From the beginning, we wanted to be completely upfront and honest with our
customers, and to educate them about the increased food safety benefits of
irradiated ground beef," says Dean Peters, director of communications with
International Dairy Queen. "We needed customer feedback to help determine
if selling irradiated hamburgers would be a viable and widely-accepted long-term
plan for our company and franchisees. More than 95 percent of the customers we
surveyed at our 80 restaurants responded that they are more likely, slightly
more likely, or significantly more likely to come back and eat an irradiated
hamburger again."
Several food industry groups and other food irradiation proponents are seeking
to change the labeling requirements and to allow the use of words such as
"cold pasteurization" or "electronic pasteurization" instead
of "irradiation" or "radiation," which sound so much like
the dreaded "radioactive."
Great Potential
According to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, U.S. households
purchased an average of 50 pounds of ground beef in 2001, which was 51 percent
of all beef purchased. Ground beef represented 75 percent of all beef servings
in commercial restaurants, for a total of some 8.2 billion servings. Moreover,
ground beef accounted for 43 percent of all beef purchased by foodservice
operators, or 4.42 billion pounds.
Since ground beef is so popular, irradiation of this staple appears to have a
dynamic and limitless future.
"Irradiation will become fashionable as retailers and consumers
increasingly understand that this process can be used to improve the safety of
our food supply without measurably compromising the quality or nutritional
value," Steris/Isomedix's Masefield says.
"I predict that by 2010 irradiated beef will be as readily available as
pasteurized milk is today," MBC's Eustice says. "Irradiation is
destined to become the fourth pillar of public health along with pasteurization,
immunization and chlorination."
(1) International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation.
(2) General Accounting Office study, 2000.
(3) Glenn Grimes, agriculture economist, University of Missouri-Columbia.
Linda L. Leake is a freelance journalist who purchases irradiated fresh
ground beef at her neighborhood grocery store, Lowe's Foods, Wilmington
OTTAWA- Health Canada, in response to requests for additional time to consider
the regulatory proposal, is extending the official comment period for Canadians
to present their views on the proposed regulatory changes to expand the list of
irradiated foods allowed to be sold in Canada.
Instead of the end of this week, the new deadline will be March 21, 2003. Prepublication of the proposals was in the Canada Gazette, Part I, on November 23, 2002. The proposed additions to the table are: fresh and frozen ground beef, fresh and frozen poultry, prepackaged fresh, frozen, prepared and dried shrimp and prawns, and mangoes.
Information on the proposed amendments
can be found on Health Canada's Website at: http://www.hc
sc.gc.ca/food-aliment/e_index.html Comments can be sent by e-mail to: irradiation@hc-sc.gc.ca
Or by fax at: 613-941-3537 or by traditional mail to:
Ronald Burke
Director
Bureau of Regulatory, International and Interagency Affairs
Health Canada
Address Locator 0702C1
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0L2
Upcoming Irradiation Workshop in
Oregon –The Oregon Beef Council is hosting an Irradiation
Workshop Tuesday March 4 from 9:30 am - 2:30 pm at the Food Innovation Center
located at 1207 NW Naito Parkway in Portland. Speakers
and presentations will include: Dr. Emilio DeBess, Oregon Department of Health,
Michelle Torno, R.D. MN Beef Council and Ron Eustice, Exec. Dir., MN Beef
Council. Space is limited, only those with reservations will be able to attend.
Please call Oregon Beef Council office at 503/274-2333 to reserve your spot. Contact
Dianne Byrne Johnston at Dianne@orbeef.org
or Ron Eustice at reustice@mnbeef.orbis.net
World Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003 at Chicago:
The World Irradiation Congress is scheduled for May 5 to 7, 2003, at Chicago's
McCormick Place. The international event will provide a comprehensive technical
and scientific forum to promote the technology and benefits of food irradiation
around the globe. The congress will examine the future of food irradiation in a
comprehensive program that includes analysis of the: Global situation and
outlook on the use of irradiation as a sanitary and phytosanitary treatment;
Major markets and market trends; Technological developments, such as irradiation
facilities and quality assurance; Investment opportunities; A visit to a
commercial food irradiator; a buyer-seller business conference and technical
sessions.
The keynote speaker on May 5 (Monday) will be Dr. Elsa Murano, USDA
Undersecretary for Food Safety, speaking on "Food safety from farm to fork:
the role of food irradiation."
Other top speakers include the CEOS of FMI and GMA; the presidents of IFT and
the International Union of Food Science and Technology; the director of National
Food Safety & Toxicology Center at Michigan State University; and top
officials from the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, the International Consultative Group on Food
Irradiation, the Minnesota Beef Council and such companies as Huisken Meat Co.,
International Dairy Queen Inc., Food Technology Service Inc. and Hawaii Pride
Inc.
For more information and to register, contact:
The National Food Safety & Toxicology Center
Michigan State University
165 Food Safety & Toxicology Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1302
517/432-3100
Website:
www.foodsafe.msu.edu/Congress/congress.html or www.foodsafe.msu.edu.
Food Irradiation Education Activities:
The Minnesota Beef Council, in cooperation with SureBeam Corporation will be
assisting with, conducting or participating in the following irradiation
education activities:
Minneapolis, MN; February 23-25, UP Show (Upper Midwest Hospitality Show)
Portland, OR; March 4, 2003: Oregon Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Raleigh, NC; March 19, 2003: North Carolina Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Texarkana, AR; April 5-6: American National CattleWomen Region IV Workshop
Harrisburg, PA; April 23-24, 2003: Central Atlantic States' Association of Food
and Drug Officials
Monterey, CA: April 28-29: American National CattleWomen Region VI Workshop
St. Cloud, MN; May 1-2, 2003: Minnesota Dietetic Association Conference
Great Falls, MT; May 2-4: American National CattleWomen Region V Workshop
Chicago, IL; May 5-7, 2003: First World Conference on Food Irradiation
Ft. Pierre, SD; June 20-22: American National CattleWomen Region VII Workshop
Green Bay, WI; July 13-15, 2003: National Association of County Agricultural
Agents
Jasper, IN; Sept. 23, 2003: Indiana Environmental Health Association Conference
FOOD
IRRADIATION UPDATE
FEBRUARY 14, 2003
Food Irradiation Update is
published by the Minnesota Beef Council
All
Hats Off To The American National CattleWomen (ANCW)
U.S.
Food Industry Begins to Embrace Irradiation
Dierberg Markets Offer Choice of Irradiated Ground Beef
Irradiated
Burgers Featured at Illinois Governor Inauguration
Irradiated Meat Due in Atlanta Area Stores; Treated
Chicken, Beef at Publix
Weis Markets to Begin Selling Irradiated Ground Beef
Safeway to Sell Irradiated Fresh Ground Beef in
Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Giant Eagle Introduces Irradiated Beef
Upcoming Irradiation Workshop in Portland, Oregon
World Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003 at Chicago
Food
Irradiation Education Activities
Quotable Quotes
"In the last 12 months, irradiation of raw ground beef has moved from one
of a constellation of anti-microbial treatment options to the technology of
choice for controlling E. coli O157:H7."
Meat Marketing Technology, January 2003
"I would estimate the total volume currently being irradiated under 5
percent (of beef production), but we are anticipating an exponential growth
curve,"
Janet Riley, spokeswoman for the American Meat Institute (AMI).
"I look at this (irradiation) as it evolves and becomes more accepted as
one of the true pillars of public health, along with chlorination of water and
pasteurization of milk. " People had concerns about microwave ovens 30
years ago. "Nobody protests microwaves anymore."
Dr. Daniel Lafontaine, Director,South Carolina Meat & Poultry Inspection
Department.
"The effort to educate consumers on the benefits and safety of
irradiated ground beef acquired a powerhouse ally. Members of the American
National CattleWomen (ANCW) have joined the effort to promote and educate
consumers about irradiated ground beef."
All Hats Off To The National CattleWomen:
(
Patti Townsend, Roswell, NM, president of the 3,200-member ANCW organization,
and ANCW vice president Susie Magnuson of Eaton, CO, tell BEEF Cow-Calf Weekly
that the first steps in the effort will begin during the organization's five
regional meetings this spring.
"Irradiation is another important safety measure that we need to use,"
says Townsend, a seedstock operator, in explaining the organization's
commitment.
Magnuson, a farmer-feeder, says she's convinced individual animal identification
is coming to the U.S. beef industry. Besides the obvious food safety merits of
the technology to consumers, she says its widespread use also offers protection
to producers.
"When that animal leaves my place, I lose control. If I have good beef
quality and safety programs in place and I'm committed to them, irradiation will
move the point of responsibility further away from the producer."
Among the most elated with the ANCW news are Minnesota Beef Council (MBC) staff
Ron Eustice and Michelle Torno, along with Minnesota cattlemen and women. This
state has been a driving force in an effort that in less than three years has
seen irradiated ground beef product move from absolutely no retail availability
to a presence on the menus and shelves of thousands upon thousands of
restaurants and retail grocery stores in the U.S. In addition, it's very likely
that irradiated ground beef could begin to show up on federal school lunch menus
before the end of this academic year.
Because of its success in Minnesota, the MBC has been asked and has been
consulting with almost a score of other state beef councils in the U.S.
interested in recreating what's come to be called "The Minnesota
Model." Meanwhile, national trade industry groups for producers, packers
and retailers, such as the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the American
Meat Institute and the Food Marketing Institute, respectively, have refused to
financially support the irradiation promotion and education effort on a national
level.
"ANCW's decision is great news," says Eustice, MBC executive
director." It's a unique opportunity to combine ANCW's extensive contacts
with the resources that the MBC has to offer. This ANCW/MBC partnership will
help fill a void in meeting a growing need to educate consumers, retailers and
school representatives about irradiation. This is an initiative that will
greatly bolster public health in the U.S., eliminate suffering and save
countless lives among vulnerable children and adults."
The ANCW effort will formally kick off at this spring's ANCW's five regional
meetings, says Magnuson. Part of those meetings will consist of a two-hour,
training and education workshop led by MBC staff on the irradiation technology
and its safety and benefits. All ANCW members are invited to attend those
meetings, Townsend says.
"We won't allow anyone who hasn't gone through that training to promote
irradiation," Magnuson says. "We need very informed spokespeople out
front meeting with consumers."
Following that, the women say, the level of participation in the promotion and
education effort will depend on the level of sponsorships received to cover the
expense of the program. Product sampling and promotion efforts, they say, will
be concentrated in larger cities, particularly in the heavily urban eastern
states that don't have an ANCW resource.
The ANCW organization deserves a big dose of gratitude from producers and
consumers for taking a national lead in this effort. Anyone familiar with the
zeal and the promotional prowess that ANCW historically brings to its
commitments should realize what a boon its involvement will be to this food
safety effort. Let's hope those controlling the dollars needed for the effort
are half as sharp. By Joe Roybal
U.S. Food Industry Begins to Embrace Irradiation: January 31,
2003 (Reuters) - Stung by record recalls of tainted meat last year, the
U.S. food industry is stepping up the use of new technology to irradiate meat as
an extra protection against deadly bacteria such as E. coli and listeria.
Just
a small part of the 9 billion pounds of ground beef sold in the United States
last year was irradiated, but the amount is growing rapidly, despite concerns
voiced by some consumer groups about the unknown long-term effects on health.
"I
would estimate the total volume currently being irradiated under 5 percent (of
beef production), but we are anticipating an exponential growth curve,"
said Janet Riley, spokeswoman for the American Meat Institute (AMI).
Irradiation
exposes products to ionizing radiation that kills insects, molds and bacteria.
The U.S. government approved irradiation treatment of ground beef in January
2000, and the first batch was processed in May of that year.
BIG INCREASES
Irradiation
began to ramp up late last year after the largest meat recall in U.S. history.
In October, Pilgrim's Pride Corp. (CHX) recalled 27.4 million pounds of poultry
products because of an outbreak of listeria, a potentially deadly bacteria. The
outbreak that prompted the recall was blamed for killing eight people and making
more than 40 sick.
Food
companies see irradiation as another barrier of protection against bacteria that
can cause food-borne illness, especially to protect children, the elderly and
those with weakened immune systems.
SureBeam
Corp. (SURE) , the largest provider of the technology, said it expects to
process between 300 million and 350 million pounds of beef this year, up from
about 15 million in 2002
"Irradiation
eliminates 99.9 percent of the pathogens such as E. coli, salmonella and
listeria without changing the taste, texture, appearance or nutritional value of
the meat," said John Fox, associate professor of agricultural economics at
Kansas State University. "In spite of its name, the process cannot make
food radioactive."
The
Food and Drug Administration permits three types of ionizing radiation on foods:
gamma rays, high-energy electrons and X-rays. Irradiation is widely used
to sterilize many non-food products, including toothbrushes, home-use adhesive
bandage strips and surgical tools, although at doses much higher than used for
food. Irradiation has been used to kill insects in wheat flour since 1963 and
used on common kitchen spices since 1983.
Still,
critics say irradiation may deplete vitamins and nutrients, and that irradiated
food contains chemical byproducts that may be harmful. They say irradiation is
an effort by meat packers and processors to cover up sloppy food-handling
processes. Washington-based consumer group Public Citizen, for example, is
calling for studies on the long-term effects of treated meat on children. In the
meantime, they oppose the use of irradiation for beef supplied by the
Agriculture Department for school meals.
"A
decision to feed schoolchildren irradiated food would mean this agency (USDA) is
willing to put our children's health at risk to help cover up the meat
industry's sanitary failures," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public
Citizen's Critcal Mass Energy and Environment Program.
Also,
if irradiated food is permitted in school lunches, it will not be labeled in the
way that irradiated retail food must be, making it impossible for parents to
know what school cafeterias are feeding their children, critics point out.
The
FDA requires irradiated meat be labeled with a symbol resembling a stylized
flower and the words "treated by irradiation."
IMMEDIATE
BENEFITS
Meat industry experts said irradiation is no "silver bullet" and
proper food handling at home remains critical. Meat can be contaminated by
residue from other foods or by utensils used to prepare other meals. Cooking of
ground beef to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit can kill E.
coli and listeria, the Beef Council said.
Still,
the proven benefits are clearly winning over many consumers and health care
officials, and use of the technology is taking off. A nationwide survey
conducted by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association found that 48 percent of
Americans would purchase irradiated meat. That response in November 2002 was up
from 38 percent in February. Industry officials said that small doses of
irradiation should not affect the taste of the meat.
The
World Health Organization has endorsed irradiation, saying it is one of the most
effective food decontamination methods available for meat and poultry products.
"On
the average, one major retail (food) chain has rolled out irradiated ground beef
every week basically since last August," said Ron Eustice, executive
director of the Minnesota Beef Council. He said about 4,000 supermarkets carry
either fresh irradiated ground beef or frozen products. Supermarket companies
Safeway Inc. (SWY) , Albertson's Inc. (ABS) and Giant Eagle Inc. have all signed
on to sell irradiated meat at some of their stores.
MEAT PROCESSORS
TAKE ACTION
The number of packers and processors irradiating beef is growing rapidly. They
are beginning to contract for irradiation capability in their plants instead of
at remote locations. Excel, a division of Minnesota-based Cargill Inc., plans to
install electron beam irradiation facilities at its packing plants in Schuyler,
Nebraska, and Plano, Texas. Rochester, Minnesota-based TeMeats, and
Minnesota-based W.W. Johnson Co. have announced plans to market irradiated
product. The former ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG) slaughterhouse in Greeley,
Colorado, now operating as Swift and Co., has committed more than $4 million to
increase food safety and plans later this year to have some of its meat
irradiated. In July, the plant was the focal point of the third-largest beef
recall in history when the company recalled almost 19 million pounds of beef
because of E. coli concerns.
"Irradiated
ground beef will become the gold standard at food service in the next two to
three years," said the Minnesota Beef Council's Eustice. "Food
irradiation will take its rightful place as the fourth pillar of public health
alongside pasteurization of milk, immunization against disease and chlorination
of our water supply -- and that will take place in the next decade. By Jerry
Bieszk
Dierberg
Markets Offer Choice of Irradiated Ground Beef:
(February 1, 2003) From a press release: Dierbergs Markets of St.
Louis, MO has added two new electronically irradiated fresh ground beef items to
its meat department giving customers ground beef options with an extra measure
of protection against foodborne illness. Dierbergs new items, a fresh 93-percent
lean ground beef and an 85-percent lean ground round, are supplied by Excel,
from its processing plant in Dodge City, Kan. Its route to Dierbergs 19
stores includes a stop in Sioux City, Iowa, where the packaged product is
electronically irradiated at a facility operated by San Diego-based SureBeam
Corp.
More than 500 studies over 40 years of research support irradiation as a safe
and effective method of enhancing the safety of foods. The Food and Drug
Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture approve its use.
It's a healthy choice endorsed by the American Medical Association, the American
Dietetic Association and other health organizations. Irradiated beef is on
the shelves of more than 4,000 U.S. grocery stores and is available in more than
40 countries.
Dierbergs'
irradiated ground-beef and ground-round will be clearly identified on meat
department shelves with the SureBeam seal, the FDA-required "Radura,"
an internationally accepted symbol for irradiation, and the words
"Irradiated for Food Safety."
John May, Dierbergs' director of meat and seafood operations, stressed that
beyond the food-safety benefits, Dierbergs irradiated meats were
indistinguishable from the store's comparable non-irradiated product.
"Irradiated ground beef is just as flavorful, juicy and nutritious as its
non-irradiated counterparts…the advantage is the extra layer of safety,"
May said.
Dierbergs and SureBeam advocate that customers follow the same handling
guidelines for irradiated fresh ground as they would for any raw-meat product,
including refrigeration and cooking to an internal temperature of 160 degrees
Fahrenheit.
The
Irradiated Chef: More Stores are Stocking Meat Products That Have Undergone
Radiation Treatment to Kill Bacteria. Should You Buy Them?
The State; Columbia, SC (January 23, 2003)
Meat that's been zapped by radiation to kill bacteria is coming soon to a
frozen-food section near you - or might be there already. Whether you'll
ever want to try these products may depend on which you fear more: the word
"radiation," or food-borne bugs that could make you deathly ill with
diarrhea.
Some
supermarket chains are betting that recalls of contaminated foods and recent E.
coli and listeria outbreaks finally have created a small niche for irradiated
meat products.
"We
have been watching the industry as it relates to irradiated meats, and decided
the timing was right to offer our customers a choice," said Brenda Reid, a
spokeswoman for Publix. Publix and other stores see potential demand among
people who must be extra-vigilant about food contamination because their immune
systems are weakened by AIDS or by aggressive treatments for cancer.
Irradiated
foods offer a health advantage for people who need to use the safest possible
product, said Mickey Clerc, a Winn-Dixie spokesman.
Irradiated hamburger patties have been available at Winn-Dixie stores for about
a year. Piggly Wiggly will introduce a similar product later this month. Publix
just added three irradiated products: lean ground-beef patties, boneless chicken
breasts and chicken tenders, all frozen.
And in March, Bi-Lo plans to become the first major supermarket chain in South
Carolina to offer an irradiated product that will be sold fresh (ground beef).
It's "just another choice for consumers," said Joyce Smart,
spokeswoman for Mauldin-based Bi Lo. "There really is a need for safety,
because people don't cook their meat properly," added Smart, who admitted
she likes her own burgers rare.
HOW IT WORKS
Food-borne
outbreaks are not always deadly. But they can be, especially among children and
the elderly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in 1999
that about 5,000 Americans die each year from food-borne diseases, which
typically cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps and diarrhea.
More recently, at least 120 illnesses and 20 deaths from listeria poisoning
occurred last summer and fall in the Northeast; 27 million pounds of turkey and
chicken products were recalled.
Zapping food with low-level radiation doesn't cook it, but disrupts the DNA of
bacteria or insects enough to kill them, said Daniel Lafontaine, director of the
South Carolina Meat and Poultry Inspection Department. Irradiated products cost
5 to 20 cents more per pound, he said.
The technology behind irradiation has been around for many decades. Astronauts'
food is irradiated, as a precaution against their contracting a food-related
ailment while an inconvenient 200,000 or so miles from the nearest emergency
room.
There
are two main methods for irradiation, a gamma-ray process and an electronic-beam
technique. (At high levels, the latter technique is being used on
anthrax-infected mail.)
Foods
are passed through a radiation field quickly - think of an airport luggage
scanner - and a similar procedure is used to sterilize medical products such as
sutures and contact lens solutions.
"It
doesn't make the product radioactive," said Lafontaine, who has eaten
irradiated meats and pronounced them "quite good."
Public health and agriculture officials are among the proponents of irradiation.
"I look at this as it evolves and becomes more accepted as one of the true
pillars of public health, along with chlorination of water and pasteurization of
milk," Lafontaine said.
Irradiation
has been approved as safe by agencies including the Food and Drug
Administration, the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association,
the American Dietetic Association and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
But that doesn't mean everyone thinks it's a good idea.
IRRADIATION
WORRIES
Public
Citizen, the consumer watchdog organization founded by Ralph Nader, says
irradiation is no substitute for cleaning up filthy slaughterhouse conditions
that can cause contamination.
Consumer
groups voice concerns about possibly cancer-causing chemicals formed in food
that is irradiated, and cite studies showing illnesses in animals such as mice
that have been fed irradiated foods. Other worries focus on safety at
irradiation facilities.
Critics also say irradiation destroys vitamins and other nutrients. That's true,
Lafontaine said, but any type of processing results in a loss of nutrients,
including boiling vegetables on the stove. He said carcinogenic effects can be
minimized by careful attention to packaging materials when foods are irradiated
- similar to the care one must take when cooking food in a microwave oven.
Dominick
Quinzi, who manages Earth Fare on Devine Street, said its "natural is
best" philosophy relies on suppliers to ensure high standards of
sanitation, handling and packaging. "It's our company's policy not to carry
any irradiated foods," Quinzi said. He declined to be specific about claims
of danger, "but there are health risks."
Carolyn Jenkins, a registered nurse and dietitian who teaches at the Medical
University of South Carolina, said compounds formed by irradiating meat are the
same as those produced by other processes, including some cooking methods. She
said she prefers the risk of irradiation to the risk of food poisoning. "It
would be wonderful if our food supply were perfectly safe, but we all know
that's not the case," she said.
Irradiation is available for produce as well, extending the shelf life of
strawberries and killing a parasitic fly on Hawaiian papayas. No stores
contacted have immediate plans to offer irradiated produce in South Carolina.
Lafontaine
said irradiated products have been slow to come to the marketplace because of
grocers' worries about public perceptions, not because of safety hazards.
Jenkins
said she expects people will look more favorably on irradiation as they learn
more about it - especially with more than 300,000 hospitalizations a year
occurring from food-borne illnesses. "When you look at any new process, it
takes a while for the public to feel safe," she said.
Lafontaine agreed, noting the concerns people had about microwave ovens 30 years ago. "Nobody protests microwaves anymore," he said. By Linda Lamb
Irradiated Burgers Featured at Illinois Governor Inauguration: The Illinois Beef Association partnered with the Illinois Institute of Technology and SureBeam Corporation to serve irradiated hamburger patties at the inauguration BBQ for Governor Blagojevich in Springfield, IL on January 13th.
Irradiated Meat Due in Area Stores; Treated Chicken, Beef at Publix:
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution (January 13, 2003): From
supermarket shelves to the school lunch program, irradiated food is inching its
way into the American diet. The technology, which bombards food with
ionizing radiation to kill bacteria that can cause food-borne illness, is
unfamiliar to many. That's likely to change.
Thousands of grocery stores began selling irradiated, uncooked ground beef last
year, a year that also saw the largest and third-largest recalls in U.S. history
of meat potentially contaminated with deadly bacteria. The first major
chain in Atlanta to do so, Publix, planned to start offering treated frozen
ground beef and chicken this weekend under the New Generation label at its 108
metro stores. Kroger is considering it.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture just began studying how to incorporate
irradiated foods into the school lunch program; they could be available as soon
as this fall. The Food and Drug Administration is considering a proposal to use
the technology on seafood and processed foods like deli meats and hot dogs,
which would greatly expand its reach; a ruling could come this year. (Last year
32 million pounds of ready-to-eat chicken and turkey deli meat were recalled
because of potential contamination with the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes, the
largest such action ever.) And a handful of restaurants are serving irradiated
meat.
For many consumers, questions remain, starting with the most basic: What does it
do, and is it safe?
The process not only kills bacteria but also extends shelf life and kills
insects. First approved 40 years ago for insect control in wheat, irradiation
slowly has gained regulatory approval for use on other foods. Depending on how
it's applied, the process can impart an off flavor, especially to foods high in
fat.
The World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
and many other health agencies say irradiation is safe, and that treated foods
are not radioactive. They say it provides an additional safeguard against
bacteria that can cause food-borne illness, especially among children, the
elderly and those with weakened immune systems.
A few consumer advocacy groups, including Public Citizen, urge caution,
contending the process causes chemical changes in the food that could cause
unknown long-term health problems. Other consumer groups, like Center for
Science in the Public Interest, say the process is safe but want tougher
enforcement of sanitation rules at meat plants rather than relying on
irradiation to eliminate potential problems.
Although many public health organizations endorse irradiation, the process has
been slow to gain consumer acceptance. Several events in the past 18 months have
raised its profile, starting with the U.S. Postal Service's announcement that it
would irradiate mail to kill anthrax bacteria, a plan that has since been scaled
back.
A question of labels
A
provision in last year's farm bill says that the USDA cannot prohibit its use in
the school lunch program. It also directs the FDA to consider replacing
"treated with radiation" or "treated by irradiation"
(irradiation means treatment with radiation) on labels with other terms.
SureBeam Corp. of San Diego, which supplies much of the irradiated ground beef
sold in supermarkets, shipped some 16 million pounds of fresh beef in 2002. For
this year, the company estimates it will produce 350 million pounds. That's
still a sliver of the 9.8 billion pounds of ground beef sold annually.
"We believe the potential is far greater than being a niche market,"
says Mark Stephenson, a SureBeam vice president. "And we don't think that
time is such a long way away."
SureBeam plans to ask the FDA to let it replace "irradiation" on
package labels with another phrase, perhaps "electronically
pasteurized," to increase consumer acceptance. Food Technology Services,
which irradiates the ground beef and chicken for Publix, does not.
"I think the word 'irradiation' is a badge of honor," says company
President Richard Hunter, who acknowledges that many Americans have different
views. "Consumers would be more accepting if it said something else."
Others selling irradiated food share those concerns. Irradiated food sold at
retail must carry an identifying label and the radura symbol, except for spices
used as a small component of another food product. Restaurants and food service
operators are not required to tell diners that they're serving irradiated food.
Some don't.
School lunch programs
The USDA is starting an education program about irradiation in Minnesota
schools. Schools that do decide to serve irradiated meat --- and they will have
a choice of whether to buy it --- will be encouraged to disclose that
information to parents, says USDA spokeswoman Alisa Harrison.
Publix has briefed its employees on the irradiation process and plans signs on
freezer cases to let customers know about the ground beef patties, boneless
chicken breasts and breast tenderloins. The 741-store chain is one of the few to
offer chicken, but wanted to do so because both meats can harbor harmful
bacteria, says spokeswoman Brenda Reid.
Publix's irradiated meats are treated with cobalt 60 irradiation; most
supermarkets buy food treated with an electron beam or X-rays generated by a
linear accelerator.
Scientifically, there is no difference in the end results, says Elsa Murano,
USDA's undersecretary for food safety. "It doesn't matter what source you
use," Murano says. "Irradiation is irradiation."
Heidi Harrison of Atlanta says she will probably buy treated chicken to cut the
risk of food-borne illness. The extra cost, 10 to 20 cents more per pound,
doesn't deter her. "If it's something to make (it) healthier or better, it
would be worth paying more money," Harrison says.
Fresh irradiated ground beef, available at some supermarkets around the country
but not (until now) in Atlanta, has persuaded many consumers to take the plunge.
Wegmans Food Markets in the Northeast began selling fresh, irradiated ground
beef in May, and during barbecue season it accounted for 30 percent of all
ground beef sales. At Wegmans, customers were told they could cook burgers rare
if made with irradiated meat, something the USDA and irradiation companies
advise against.
They say that although irradiation provides an additional level of safety,
treated products should still be handled like untreated ones. That means cooking
thoroughly and preventing cross-contamination with foods that will be eaten
without cooking, like salads.
"Just because it's irradiated doesn't mean all pathogens have been
eliminated," says Mike Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's
Center for Food Safety in Griffin. By Elizabeth Lee
Weis Markets to Begin Selling Irradiated Ground Beef : (January
29, 2003) From a press release
SUNBURY, Pa. -- Weis Markets, Inc. (NYSE: WMK) began selling irradiated
fresh ground beef on February 2 in stores throughout its marketing area in
Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and West Virginia.
The Company said it would be the first to market with irradiated fresh ground
beef products in many of its Central Pennsylvania markets including Harrisburg,
Lancaster and York. SureBeam Corporation will supply the irradiated fresh ground
beef products to Weis Markets.
SureBeam's patented technology utilizes electricity as an energy source to
irradiate fresh ground beef, greatly reducing the threat of E. coli, Listeria
and Salmonella. The SureBeam process also extends the freshness and shelf
life of irradiated ground beef products. Since it is known as a cold
process, it does not significantly increase the temperature of the ground beef
being processed. Beginning February 2, Weis Markets will sell fresh irradiated
ground beef in 1 lb. packages - 85% lean and 1 lb. packages
- 93% lean patties. The packages will be clearly labeled and marked as
being processed through the SureBeam method.
"Throughout our company, our associates work diligently to maintain the
highest food safety standards," said Weis Markets President Norman S. Rich.
"SureBeam fresh irradiated ground beef offers customers an extra level of
safety without sacrificing quality or taste. Every day our customers get
our best including more options and better quality. It's what they have
come to expect from Weis Markets."
Food irradiation has been approved by the Federal Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In addition, the American
Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American
Dietetic Association and the U.S. Surgeon General have endorsed this process.
Studies have shown that food irradiation improves food safety, particularly for
people vulnerable to food borne illnesses, including those who are diabetics,
transplant patients, cancer patients, HIV/AIDS patients, and the elderly.
Experts note that food irradiation is not a substitute for proper food handling.
People using ground beef products should: clean all surfaces touched by ground
beef products; avoid cross contamination with other foods and take care to use
separate cutting boards and utensils for cooked and uncooked foods; and cooking
ground beef to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. Customers should
also chill food within two hours of purchase or preparation.
Founded in 1912, Weis Markets currently operates 160 stores in six states:
Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Virginia and West Virginia. The
Company also owns SuperPetz, a pet supply superstore chain with 33 locations in
eleven states.
Safeway to Sell Surebeam(r) Processed Fresh Ground Beef in Baltimore and
Washington, DC (January 29, 2003) From a press release
SAN DIEGO -- SureBeam Corporation (Nasdaq: SURE) announced January 29th that
consumers can now buy SureBeam(R) processed fresh ground beef at all 136 Safeway
Eastern Division supermarkets in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Washington,
D.C. Safeway is offering fresh ground beef products processed with
SureBeam Corporation's revolutionary electron beam technology, a process that
uses ordinary electricity to safely eliminate the threat of dangerous bacteria
from food products.
"Safeway's primary goal is to provide customers with the highest quality
food products available," said Roger Herding, Safeway Eastern Division
Marketing Vice President. "As consumers have become increasingly
concerned about the safety and wholesomeness of the ground beef they are
purchasing, we believe that this product will help ease their concerns."
Safeway is selling SureBeam processed fresh ground beef in one-pound packages of
85-percent and 93-percent lean.
"It's exciting to know that consumers throughout the Baltimore/Washington,
D.C. area can now purchase SureBeam fresh ground beef at their local Safeway
stores," stated Larry Oberkfell, SureBeam Chairman, CEO and President.
"By offering this important choice to their customers, Safeway is
demonstrating their national leadership in food safety."
Similar to a microwave oven, SureBeam technology uses electricity as an energy
source to irradiate harmful bacteria such as E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella.
The SureBeam patented system is based on proven electron beam technology that
destroys dangerous bacteria, much like thermal pasteurization does to milk.
Safeway's
entry into the market brings to over 2,100 the total number of stores in the
Midwest, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic States offering SureBeam processed fresh
ground beef. This is in addition to the thousands of supermarkets
providing SureBeam processed frozen hamburger patties, which are also provided
through home delivery, direct mail and food service.
Safeway's Eastern Division employs approximately 11,000 people and operates 136
stores, including 16 in the District of Columbia, 75 in Maryland, 44 in Virginia
and one in Delaware. Safeway (NYSE: SWY), a Fortune 50 company, is one of
the largest food and drug retailers in North America with annualized sales
exceeding $34 billion. The company operates approximately 1,755 stores in
the United States and Canada with a total workforce of nearly 200,000 employees.
Giant Eagle
Introduces Irradiated Beef (January 23, 2003) Pittsburgh Post
Gazette via FSNET
Supermarket chain Giant Eagle was cited as debuting ground beef treated by the
SureBeam electron beam process in Pittsburgh-area stores without fanfare Jan.
12. The story says that educational point-of-purchase brochures and signs
introduced meat department customers to the concept and safety benefits of
irradiated ground beef, nattily packaged in opaque, one-pound tubes similar to
ready-to-bake cookie dough.
Without
divulging any actual sales figures for the first-week rollout of the new
product, Rob Borella, director of corporate communications for Giant Eagle Inc.,
was quoted as saying, "sales were pretty much what we expected." Giant
Eagle Inc., which encompasses 124 corporate stores and 89 franchises in Western
Pennsylvania, north-central West Virginia and Maryland, is the first in the
region to offer irradiated meat products in the form of 80 percent lean/20
percent fat and 93 percent lean/7 percent fat ground beef. Last week and this
week, the supermarket chain is offering an introductory price of $2.29
(regularly $2.49) for the one-pound tube of 80/20, and $2.99 per pound
(regularly $3.29) for the 93/7. (Prices for irradiated meats average 5 percent
to 10 percent higher than their untreated counterparts.)
Upcoming Irradiation Workshop in Oregon –The Oregon Beef Council is hosting an Irradiation workshop Tuesday March 4, 2003 from 9:30 am - 2:30 pm at Portland’s Food Innovation Center (FIC). (The FIC is directly across from the Oregon Beef Council’s offices.) A 9:30 AM registration check-in and a 10:00 AM start are planned. Please call Dianne Byrne Johnston at the Oregon Beef Council office at 503/274-2333 to reserve your spot.
World Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003 at Chicago:
The World Irradiation Congress is scheduled for May 5 to 7, 2003, at Chicago's
McCormick Place. The international event will provide a comprehensive technical
and scientific forum to promote the technology and benefits of food irradiation
around the globe. The congress will examine the future of food irradiation in a
comprehensive program that includes analysis of the: Global situation and
outlook on the use of irradiation as a sanitary and phytosanitary treatment;
Major markets and market trends; Technological developments, such as irradiation
facilities and quality assurance; Investment opportunities; A visit to a
commercial food irradiator; a buyer-seller business conference and technical
sessions.
The keynote speaker on May 5 (Monday) will be Dr. Elsa Murano, USDA
Undersecretary for Food Safety, speaking on "Food safety from farm to fork:
the role of food irradiation."
Other top speakers include the CEOS of FMI and GMA; the presidents of IFT and
the International Union of Food Science and Technology; the director of National
Food Safety & Toxicology Center at Michigan State University; and top
officials from the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, the International Consultative Group on Food
Irradiation, the Minnesota Beef Council and such companies as Huisken Meat Co.,
International Dairy Queen Inc., Food Technology Service Inc. and Hawaii Pride
Inc.
For more information and to register, contact:
The National Food Safety & Toxicology Center
Michigan State University
165 Food Safety & Toxicology Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1302
517/432-3100
Website: www.foodsafe.msu.edu/Congress/congress.html or www.foodsafe.msu.edu.
Food Irradiation Education Activities:
The Minnesota Beef Council, in cooperation with SureBeam Corporation will be
assisting with, conducting or participating in the following irradiation
education activities:
Minneapolis, MN; February 23-25, UP Show (Upper Midwest Hospitality Show)
Portland, OR; March 4, 2003: Oregon Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Raleigh, NC; March 19, 2003: North Carolina Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Texarkana, AR; April 5-6: American National CattleWomen Region IV Workshop
Harrisburg, PA; April 23-24, 2003: Central Atlantic States' Association of Food
and Drug Officials
Monterey, CA: April 28-29: American National CattleWomen Region VI Workshop
St. Cloud, MN; May 1-2, 2003: Minnesota Dietetic Association Conference
Great Falls, MT; May 2-4: American National CattleWomen Region V Workshop
Chicago, IL; May 5-7, 2003: First World Conference on Food Irradiation
Ft. Pierre, SD; June 20-22: American National CattleWomen Region VII Workshop
Green Bay, WI; July 13-15, 2003: National Association of County Agricultural
Agents
Jasper, IN; Sept. 23, 2003: Indiana Environmental Health Association Conference
FOOD
IRRADIATION UPDATE
Food Irradiation Update is published by the Minnesota Beef Council
Upcoming
Irradiation Workshop in Tennessee
World Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003 at Chicago
Food
Irradiation Education Activities
Schnucks
Introduces Irradiated Ground Beef in Metro Area Stores:
(January
13, 2003) From
a Press Release; Grocer
Launches Education Effort to Shed Light on Food Safety:
St. Louis: Schnuck Markets, Inc.
January 13 became the first grocer in the St. Louis area to announce plans to
sell irradiated fresh ground beef and frozen beef patties. Irradiated beef has
been exposed to a beam of electrons that significantly reduces bacteria and the
risk of foodborne illnesses.
According
to Cy Jansen, vice president of
meat merchandising at Schnucks, metro area stores will sell fresh ground beef
chubs ("chub" refers to the plastic packaging, similar to that of pork
sausage) supplied by Excel, a subsidiary of Cargill of Wichita, Kan. Frozen beef
patties will come from Huiskens of Sauk Rapids, Minn. The SureBeam®
Corporation of San Diego, Calif. will irradiate the ground beef and beef patties
in their Sioux City, Iowa facility.
Jansen
said irradiated ground beef is simply another choice for customers, particularly
those who are the most vulnerable to infection. "Cooking ground beef to the
proper temperature of 160 degrees kills bacteria, including Salmonella and
E. coli 0157:H7. Customers who are very young, elderly, pregnant or
struggling with weakened immune systems will benefit from the added security
that comes through irradiation."
Mark
Stephenson,
vice president of communications for SureBeam®, explains,
"Irradiation kills bacteria by using ordinary electricity in the form of an
electron beam. Exposure to this energy source virtually eliminates E. coli,
which is present in some form in the majority of ground beef. The benefit is
similar to that of milk pasteurization."
Schnucks
is an industry leader and has been leading the way in food safety for the past
several years. According to Schnucks Food Safety Director Dianna Pasley,
irradiation is just one more way to guard against contamination prior to
purchase. "In the aftermath of recent food recalls, it's important that we
look for alternative ways to protect our food supply."
Pasley
added, "It's important to remember that although irradiation reduces the
level of harmful bacteria, it does not protect against recontamination through
improper handling. Consumers must continue to practice good food safety habits
in the home."
Jansen
encourages consumers to learn more about irradiated ground beef and to stop by
selected Schnucks store for samples Jan. 17 - 19. He admits that for some, the
first step is accepting the name. "We believe the name, perhaps the most
controversial part of launching irradiated ground beef, has hindered its
acceptance." Jansen emphasized that the SureBeam® process uses
ordinary electricity, not gamma or cobalt, as the energy source.
Schnucks
first offered SureBeam® irradiated ground beef in its Peoria and
Pekin, Ill. stores last winter. While sales of the product met Schnucks
expectations, Jansen says education is the key to greater acceptance. He said,
"The microwave oven was met with resistance. Today, nearly every home has
this technology."
Although
Schnucks is the first local grocer to offer irradiated ground beef, the grocery
industry has embraced the irradiation process as an additional way to ensure
product quality.
Irradiated
food is now being offered in nearly 40 countries and is endorsed by numerous
health organizations and regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. According to Stephenson,
"Our company (Surebeam®) alone has placed fresh and frozen
irradiated beef in more than 4,000 grocery stores nationwide."
Irradiation
is also being used to reduce or eliminate bacteria in produce. The process
delays the ripening and sprouting of fruits and vegetables (Schnucks does not
carry irradiated produce at this time).
Schnuck Markets, Inc. currently operates 102 stores and 93 pharmacies in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Mississippi. This includes five stores that operate as Logli Supermarkets and a stand-alone Sentry drug store. Schnuck Markets, Inc. is currently ranked 83rd in the Forbes Magazine listing of the nation's "Top 500 Private Companies."
Three
Minnesota school districts to consider irradiated lunches:
Star
Tribune
(January
17, 2003);
Minneapolis: Minnesota
school districts will be the first in the state, and possibly the nation, to
consider using irradiated ground beef supplied by the federal government in
school meals.
The
first irradiated burger could be served as early as this coming fall in the
Spring Lake Park, Sauk Rapids and Willmar districts, Minnesota education
officials said Thursday. But before that happens, officials said they will
launch community awareness projects about irradiation's role in preventing
foodborne diseases, such as that caused by E.coli bacteria.
From
now until late summer, officials from the Minnesota Department of Children,
Families and Learning will survey students, parents and school staff in the
three communities to ascertain their attitudes and knowledge about food safety
and irradiation. Officials also said they'd provide "science-based
information" about irradiation to help people decide whether to use the
ground beef in school lunches, breakfasts and snacks. Then, if the school
districts decide to proceed, they could begin receiving irradiated ground beef
from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Food
irradiation, which zaps food briefly with radiation to kill disease-causing
organisms, is endorsed by almost all major medical organizations, but is opposed
by some public advocacy groups.
A
recent change in federal regulations allows beef bought by the USDA for the
school lunch program to be irradiated. Some individual schools in Minnesota and
other states may use irradiated meat bought through private suppliers, although
that is not a widespread practice. But, state school lunch officials said, this
is the first time beef bought by the federal government for the school lunch
program will be irradiated and served to students.
"To
our knowledge, no one else is doing this," said Mary Begalle, director of
Food and Nutrition Service for Children, Families and Learning. Her department
received a $151,000 grant from the USDA for the pilot project. Begalle said the
three districts were asked to participate because they represent a cross-section
of schools in Minnesota -- rural, outstate and the Twin Cities area.
Many
school districts purchase precooked food, so irradiation isn't an issue for
them, Begalle said. Most districts that order raw ground beef and therefore
could consider irradiation are in rural areas.
"We
chose to participate in this since food safety is our number one concern,"
said Barbara Hann, the Spring Lake Park district's food service director.
"This would be our way to find out more information sooner and maybe
implement another technique."
How
it works
Irradiation
has been used for decades to sterilize and help preserve food. It does not turn
food radioactive, but kills bacteria such as E.coli, which sickened 18 children
in an outbreak three years ago at a Minneapolis elementary school, and many
other disease-causing agents.
The
USDA approved the use of irradiation in red meat in 1997. Irradiated ground beef
has been sold in Minnesota supermarkets since 2000, making the state one of the
first where it has been available commercially.
The
Minnesota education program drew applause from many public health professionals,
such as state epidemiologist Dr. Harry Hull and infectious-disease expert
Michael Osterholm.
Dr.
Kirk Smith, a food safety expert at the Minnesota Department of Health, said
irradiation does not replace the need for good sanitation in meat plants and by
food handlers. But he said it's an extra step to ensure that youngsters -- who
are often the most vulnerable to foodborne disease complications -- are not
sickened.
"I've
talked with parents who have lost children to E.coli O157, and that really stays
with you," Smith said. "This is an extra measure on top of everything
else to ensure safety."
Questions
remain
But
Jackie Hunt Christensen of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in
Minneapolis said more research is needed on irradiation's safety before it's
given to schoolchildren. Christensen said her group is concerned that
irradiation could create harmful chemicals in food.
However,
Hull said that irradiation has been studied extensively and that its proven
benefits outweigh any theoretical risks.
The
spectrum of opinions on irradiation was reflected at Thursday's announcement at
the annual Minnesota Food Exposition, which was attended by school food service
workers from across the state.
Kim
Falter, who said she will be working in food service at a new charter school in
Grand Marais this fall, was one of many listening to the presentation.
She
said the information glossed over potential risks. She added that it relied only
on studies funded by the federal government, which is paying for the education
pilot project and also would supply the meat in question.
"I
think it's important for everyone here to know now what they're getting
into," Falter said, addressing the panel of speakers and the audience.
It's
the word "irradiation" that sets many people off, other food service
workers said.
Irradiation is no silver bullet, said Pam York, who manages nutrition and physical activity programs for the Minnesota Department of Health and who spoke at Thursday's announcement. However, it does provide another measure of safety for food products served to young children, she said. "We want to protect them," she said. By Allie Shah and Jill Burcum
Minnesota
Schools Explore Irradiated Beef: (January
16, 2003) KSTP-TV, Minneapolis-St. Paul:
Minnesota
school children could be eating irradiated hamburgers as early as next year.
That announcement comes just weeks after officials put a hold on thousands of
pounds of beef destined for the schools. Investigative Reporter Kristin Stinar
reports the process will start with education and the timing couldn't be better.
From
the State Fair to the grocery store... Minnesota Beef Council Executive Director
Ron Eustice has been pitching irradiation for years. "There is nothing that
you can eat here at the fairgrounds that is safer than this! The support, the
acceptance by the consumer has been outstanding."
Now
he's aiming for one of the biggest consumers. Minnesota's school lunch programs.
At a conference Thursday the state announced a pilot project in three districts
including Spring Lake Park, Sauk Rapids and Willmar. They won't serve irradiated
beef right away. Willmar superintendent Kathy Leedom says they’ll
first educate their communities about it and study whether it will be accepted.
"That will equip us to make a local decision about whether or not we will
want to use irradiated food products."
Irradiated
beef typically costs five to ten cents more a pound. But the state's food and
nutrition director, Mary Begalle, believes that even with tightening budgets
schools can find the extra money. "Often times our schools can't utilize
their full entitlement of commodity dollars. So this would be a very good way
for them to utilize those dollars in buying a product that they know is
safe."
Last
month the state put a hold on thousands of pounds of school lunch beef until it
could be tested for contamination. It came from GFI America, a Minneapolis meat
processor temporarily shut down by federal inspectors for rodent infestation.
With renewed concerns about food safety education officials say this push for
irradiation couldn't come at a better time.
Minnesota is the first state in the nation to launch an irradiation pilot program in schools. Federal school programs never carried irradiated foods, but last year's farm bill changed that.
"We
want Minnesota school districts to have the information they need to make the
best school food safety decisions in light of the new legislation," said
CFL/FNS director Mary Begalle. "We will work closely with food service
staff, administrators and community members in these districts to educate and
provide information about irradiation and safe food service practices
overall."
Pioneered
in Minnesota, irradiation of food has been gaining approval from consumers.
Irradiation effectively controls dangerous organisms such as E.
coli O157:H7 that can cause serious health problems, especially in children and
elderly people. Extensive scientific studies have shown that irradiation results
in little if any change to the appearance, taste and nutritional value of food.
Consumers
nationwide buy and use irradiated food, increasingly available in many stores
and restaurants, as an added measure to prevent foodbome illness. School
districts may also purchase irradiated food in commercial markets. Recent
Federal farm legislation made irradiation of USDA commodity food, provided free
for school nutrition programs, a possibility. CFL's Food and Nutrition Service
(FNS) then approached USDA with the idea for this education pilot project.
Contact: Doug Gray, (651) 582-8281
Minnesota
Department of Children, Families & Learning (CFL)/Food and Nutrition Service
(FNS) School Food Safety and Irradiation Education Pilot Project Frequently
Asked Questions
Q What is the CFL/FNS Food Safety Education Pilot
Project?
A.
CFL/FNS, under a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), will help
three selected Minnesota school districts — Sauk Rapids, Spring Lake Park and
Willmar — conduct food safety education activities. Our goal is to get the
best, latest, science-based information on irradiation and school food safety to
parents, students, educators, administrators, school boards and other interested
community members.
Q What will happen?
A.
CFL/FNS and participating districts will assess the state of knowledge about
school food safety and irradiation within the district and the broader
community. We will provide educational materials and activities intended to
increase food safety awareness. We will follow up to see how these efforts
contributed to greater awareness of the need for safe food handling and serving,
especially in schools. We will discuss irradiation in the broader context of
overall food safety programs.
Q Can Minnesota schools serve
irradiated food to their students?
A.
Schools in Minnesota and in the rest of the nation have always been able to
purchase irradiated food on the commercial market and use it in their food
service programs. Recent Federal farm legislation made irradiation of USDA
commodity food, provided free for school nutrition programs, a possibility.
Q Should Minnesota schools serve
irradiated food? Is it safe?
A.
Local schools and districts will make any decisions about the purchase and use
of irradiated food in their food service programs.
Extensive
scientific studies have shown that irradiation results in little if any change
to the appearance, taste and nutritional value of food. Respected scientific and
medical organizations, including the World Health Organization and the American
Medical Association, accept these studies and their results and endorse
irradiation.
Q. What are the benefits of
irradiating food?
A.
Irradiation, along with other food safety techniques, effectively controls
harmful organisms in the food we eat. Infections from bacteria such as some
strains of E. coli can lead to known, seriously harmful effects such as kidney
failure, especially for children and elderly people.
Q Is foodborne illness a problem
in Minnesota?
A.
The Minnesota Department of Health estimates that over 6.5 million Minnesotans
suffer from foodbome illness each year. Over half a million seek medical care,
nearly 49,000 visit emergency rooms and over 30,000 are hospitalized. Most are
older than 64 or younger than 15.
Q
Why here? Why now? Why irradiation?
A.
Irradiation is gaining broader acceptance as one of a number of methods used to
make food safe. Minnesota companies and food marketers have been out in front of
this national trend. Consumers nationwide buy and use irradiated food,
increasingly available in many stores and restaurants, as an added measure to
prevent foodbome illness.
CFL/FNS
has been a pioneer in the effort to increase and improve local school districts'
ability to draw from the widest possible range of suppliers for local food
service programs.
We
anticipate that USDA may soon offer irradiated food to schools as part of its
commodity programs. Whether or not that happens, we want to begin preparing our
schools now to make the best local decisions about food safety.
Q Does CFL/FNS encourage schools
to serve irradiated foods to students?
A.
We strongly support safer food for schools and students. Schools need to
understand and use many of the latest, best food safety methods at the same time
in order to keep the food they serve as safe as possible. By itself, irradiation
cannot solve all food safety problems.
We encourage schools to make food safety decisions based on the best available science-based information. However, we do not endorse or encourage local schools and districts to use any specific product or technique.
Irradiated Beef Hits Cape
Grocery Store: Southeast
Missourian (January 15, 2003)
According to this story, Schnucks this week became the area's first grocer to
sell irradiated ground beef, a specially treated meat that proponents say
greatly reduces bacteria and the risk of health problems like salmonella and E.
coli.
Store
manager Dennis Marchi was cited as saying that employees placed fresh, 1-pound
ground beef packages and boxes of frozen beef patties that were exposed to beams
of bacteria-killing electrons on Schnucks' shelves Sunday, and that the meat was
irradiated by SureBeam Corp. in San Diego and costs 10
to 20 cents more per pound than regular meat, adding, "It's a very, very
safe process. We still have all the beef that's ground in the store. This is
just a wonderful technology that really provides another choice for our
customers."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control have all agreed that the process is safe. But some critics aren't convinced, saying there is some evidence that the treated meat could be harmful to consumers, possibly even causing cancer. Patty Lovera, a spokeswoman with Washington-based Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader, was quoted as saying, "There is plenty of evidence to show there are concerns about health impacts. The federal government has been brushing those concerns under the rug." Lovera cited studies that she claims show that the irradiation process causes new chemical reactions, creating, among other compounds, cyclobutanones, which have been linked to cancer.
Proponents
of the process, however, say that the process not only kills bacteria but also
extends shelf life and kills insects. On the heels of a year that saw the
largest and third-largest meat recalls in U.S. history,
proponents also say it is the perfect time to provide another barrier of
protection against bacteria that can cause foodborne illness, especially among
children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems.
Bill
Ellis, an agriculture professor at Southeast Missouri State University, was
quoted as saying, "I've heard about the controversy, and there is
absolutely no negative to the consumer. It's beneficial. It's another
program to bring higher quality food to the consumers. There is absolutely
nothing for the consumer to fear." By Scott Moyers
Meat
plant bolstering food safety Greeley's Swift & Co. slaughterhouse commits $4
million to improvements: Denver Post (January
14, 2003): The former ConAgra slaughterhouse in Greeley is spending millions to
beef up food safety - and its image - in a sweeping set of changes. the plant is
the first large meatpacker in the country to test and hold beef from shipment
until results show it's free of potentially lethal pathogens.
Further
the company plans later this year to have some of its meat irradiated, ensuring
bacteria such as E.coli are dead.
The
plant, now known as Swift & Co., has committed more than $4 million to a
variety of changes designed to make its meat safer, a spokesman said. In July,
the plant endured the third-largest beef recall in history. Swift officials
won't detail all the changes, protecting them as trade secrets.
Among
those they did discuss: washing carcasses more efficiently; lighting work areas
better; testing meat more often; training employees more thoroughly; and
improving work conditions.
"While
the company has gone more than six years with only one pathogen-related recall,
we're making many changes to enhance already effective food safety processes and
procedures," Swift spokesman Jim Herlihy said.
Some
consumer safety groups heralded Swift's actions as long overdue but said time
will show whether the company carries them out with zeal.
Swift
has spent nearly $30 million in the past three years improving its production
and food safety programs, Herlihy said.
The
company is taking the unprecedented step of inviting media, politicians and
industry journalists inside a plant once closed to them.
"We
think it's important outsiders see what we are doing," Herlihy said.
That's
a switch from the company's hunker-down attitude last summer when it recalled
18.6 million pounds of beef because of E.coli concerns.
"Swift
is taking some huge steps that are to be applauded, but I'm also taking it with
cautious, measured optimism," said Caroline Smith-DeWaal, food safety
director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy
group in Washington, D.C. "Unfortunately it took a major recall and
outbreak to get the company to take these steps. Hopefully others won't wait for
a major food safety crisis to follow Swift's lead."
Herlihy
said visitors will see more than two dozen food-safety changes, some the first
in the beef industry.
Foremost
is additional testing for pathogens on meat destined to become hamburger or
sausage, Herlihy said.
Before
the recall, ConAgra workers only tested for E.coli 0157:H7 in some trimmings,
pieces of meat destined to become ground beef.
The
U.S. Department of Agriculture did not test any meat at plant before the recall.
Now the agency conducts random tests there.
Days
after the recall, Swift began holding meat shipments until tests showed they
were free of E.coli. Swift is the first large meatpacker to do this, according
to Herlihy and Swift's competitors.
The
practice surpasses USDA rules, which allow a company to ship meat before test
results are in.
"For
Swift to test and hold product is huge," Smith-DeWaal said. "This
shows they're willing to test to be sure their production system is
working."
E.coli
contamination comes from cattle feces spattered during slaughter, so Swift has
added new procedures to keep feces off carcasses in the first place.
Dirty
hides often are the first cause of slaughterhouse filth, so Swift has begun
washing cattle before they enter the plant.
Swift
also washes the cow hide before it is stripped off the dead animal, Herlihy
said.
The
production line, where carcasses are disemboweled and partly disassembled, has
additional lighting to help workers find and trim contamination.
If
any worker sees a food- or work-safety problem, they're encouraged to push one
of several new buttons to stop the line, a costly move that halts production.
"If
they feel they cannot handle a situation, contamination or not, while the
carcass is in front of them, they should stop the line," Herlihy said
workers are being told in their new training.
"Orientation
for employees will be longer and all employees will receive more specific
information about pathogens," Herlihy said.
The
company also is trying to reduce the chances that contamination will be
transferred from a carcass to another surface, such as other meat.
Swift
now places the carcasses father apart, gives workers a second knife to use while
the first is sterilizing, and gives employees more time to check for filth
before the last USDA inspection.
Swift
plans to send some meat to be irradiated with electricity, a process that has
not caught on with consumers.Irradiation, Herlihy said, "is not the silver
bullet to food safety. ... We view it only as one of many food-safety
tools."
World
Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003 at Chicago: (December 23, 2002) The World Irradiation Congress
is scheduled for May 5 to 7, 2003, at Chicago's McCormick Place. The
international event will provide a comprehensive technical and scientific forum
to promote the technology and benefits of food irradiation around the globe. The
congress will examine the future of food irradiation in a comprehensive program
that includes analysis of the: Global situation and outlook on the use of
irradiation as a sanitary and phytosanitary treatment; Major markets and market
trends; Technological developments, such as irradiation facilities and quality
assurance; Investment opportunities; A visit to a commercial food irradiator; a
buyer-seller business conference and technical sessions.
The keynote speaker on May 5 (Monday) will be Dr. Elsa Murano, USDA
Undersecretary for Food Safety, speaking on "Food safety from farm to fork:
the role of food irradiation."
Other
top speakers include the CEOS of FMI and GMA; the presidents of IFT and the
International Union of Food Science and Technology; the director of National
Food Safety & Toxicology Center at Michigan State University; and top
officials from the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, the International Consultative Group on Food
Irradiation, the Minnesota Beef Council and such companies as Huisken Meat Co.,
International Dairy Queen Inc., Food Technology Service Inc. and Hawaii Pride
Inc.
For
more information and to register, contact:
The National Food Safety & Toxicology Center
Michigan State University
165 Food Safety & Toxicology Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1302
517/432-3100
Website:
(www.iaea.org/icgfi/congress.html)
Food
Irradiation Education Activities:
The Minnesota Beef Council, in
cooperation with SureBeam Corporation will be assisting with, conducting or
participating in the following irradiation education activities:
Rochester, MN; January 22, 2003: National Farmers Organization Annual Meeting
Bloomington, MN; January 24, 2003: Minnesota Nutrition Council Inc. Annual Meeting
Nashville, TN; January 27, 2003: Tennessee Beef Council Food Irradiation Seminar
Nashville, TN; January 29, 2003: American National CattleWomen Annual Convention
Staunton, VA; February 4, 2003: Virginia Beef Industry Council Board Meeting
Minneapolis, MN; February 23-25, UP Show (Upper Midwest Hospitality Show)
Portland, OR; March 4, 2003: Oregon Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Raleigh, NC; March 19, 2003: North Carolina Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Texarkana, AR; April 5-6: American National CattleWomen Region IV Workshop
Harrisburg, PA; April 23-24, 2003: Central Atlantic States' Association of Food and Drug Officials
Monterey, CA: April 28-29: American National CattleWomen Region VI Workshop
St. Cloud, MN; May 1-2, 2003: Minnesota Dietetic Association Conference
Great Falls, MT; May 2-4: American National CattleWomen Region V Workshop
Chicago, IL; May 5-7, 2003: First World Conference on Food Irradiation
Ft. Pierre, SD; June 20-22: American National CattleWomen Region VII Workshop
Green Bay, WI; July 13-15, 2003: National Association of County Agricultural Agents
Jasper, IN; Sept. 23, 2003: Indiana
Environmental Health Association Conference
Food Irradiation Update is being sent as an update on food irradiation by the Minnesota Beef Council. If for any reason you do not want to receive these updates please hit Reply and ask us to delete you from the list of recipients.
FOOD
IRRADIATION UPDATE
World
Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003 at Chicago
Food
Irradiation Education Activities
•
Microbial control
systems for foodservice suppliers.
•
Consumer information regarding cooking temperatures and thermometer use at point
of purchase.
It’s
no secret that microbial contamination of ground beef is the beef industry’s
Achilles’ heel. Not only does it put a significant portion of the market at
risk – ground beef being the most popular and versatile beef product around
– it’s a stinging and visible black eye to the industry’s image as one
that’s truly devoted to food safety.
Last
summer took a considerable toll on that image, with ConAgra’s recall of 19
million pounds of ground beef and other incidents hitting the national media on
what seemed like a weekly basis. You can chalk up those incidents to bad luck,
better and more sensitive testing or just heightened media attention, but it
doesn’t make those pokes in the eye hurt any less.
So it
was refreshing to hear that all the beef industry segments were finally sitting
down to design one, unified effort to wage war on, and eventually defeat, E.
coli 0157:H7. What was disappointing was that in mustering all its current
and prospective forces for the battle, the industry left one of its most potent
weapons on the shelf – irradiation.
Maybe
pushing irradiation doesn’t send the same message to cow-calf producers and
feedlots about their own roles in this beef safety campaign. Perhaps irradiation
doesn’t build as potent a public imagery as the industry mobilizing for war.
Maybe irradiation isn’t as “sexy” or grant-worthy as newer, yet unproven,
high-tech concepts and technologies that are still pending government approval.
And maybe it’s just an issue of perceived economics for packers and
processors.
But
what irradiation does have going for it is its effectiveness. It’s approved
for use in more than 40 nations worldwide, endorsed by the World Health
Organization and every reputable human and public health group in the U.S. This
should be a slam-dunk.
During
the question-and-answer session following the prepared remarks in San Antonio, a
reporter asked why irradiation wasn’t featured prominently in the five-point
plan. The response was that while the group of experts recognized irradiation as
a useful tool in food safety, there were “organoleptic” issues to work out.
These, the same speaker pointed out upon later questioning, had to do with
things like the taste, color, etc., of such products when irradiation was
conducted on a high-volume scale. He also said there were some concerns about
insufficient capacity to irradiate all the nation’s ground beef supply.
Those
points were a complete surprise to irradiation proponents like Ron Eustice,
executive director of the Minnesota Beef Council, who has championed irradiation
of the ground beef supply for the past five years. He maintains that marketing
of such products by at least 2,000 restaurants currently serving irradiated
ground beef, and its availability in 4,000 retail grocery supermarkets in the
U.S., hasn’t turned up any organoleptic complaints.
In
addition, Eustice adds, there currently exists a capacity to process 1 billion
pounds of irradiated ground beef annually in the U.S., which is more than
sufficient to meet current demand for this food safety option.
Be
that as it may, there’s no getting around the fact that irradiation works,
it’s effective in killing E. coli 0157:H7, it’s been studied for more
than 70 years and it’s strongly endorsed by government, and medical, dietetic
and public health organizations and agencies.
The
widespread adoption of irradiation doesn’t preclude the development or use of
other technologies or practices that the group in San Antonio has enumerated.
Irradiation isn’t a silver bullet, but if used in concert with other existing
technologies, it can immediately begin to solve the ongoing battle with E.
coli 0157:H7 in ground beef. To win this war, and we will win it, we need to
use all existing intervention strategies and irradiation should be front and
center in this effort.
By
Joe Roybal. BEEF
Cow-Calf Weekly
is a free, weekly electronic newsletter. To sign up, go to
www.beef-mag.com.
Amherst,
N.Y.-Based Tops Markets Plans to Sell Irradiated Ground Beef:
(January 7, 2003) The
Buffalo (NY) News: Beginning
later this month, Top Markets will begin selling fresh ground beef that has been
irradiated to kill disease-causing bacteria. Consumers can eat irradiated ground
beef medium rare without worrying that they will become sick from E. coli
bacteria or salmonella. The irradiated beef will cost between 20 cents and 30
cents more a pound than regular ground beef, which must be cooked to 160 degrees
to be safe.
The
beef is irradiated using a concentrated beam of electrical energy. Tops will
sell both 85 percent lean and 90 percent lean irradiated fresh ground beef. The
irradiated meat will make up about 5 percent of the ground beef offered at Tops,
according to the Amherst-based company.
In
May, Wegmans became the first local supermarket and one of the first major
supermarket chains in the country to introduce irradiated ground beef.
Irradiation
is considered safe by the federal government and has been endorsed by
health-related organizations. But opponents have questioned the safety of the
germ-killing process and dislike the proposed regulations for labeling
irradiated meat.
Irradiation
uses high-energy or ionizing radiation to decontaminate food of microorganisms,
insects or parasites. The energy can come from radioactive material, electron
accelerators or X-rays.
The
U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved irradiation for beef in 1997, and the
Department of Agriculture approved it in 2000.
The Food Marketing Institute, a supermarket trade group, last year released a survey showing that 57 percent of consumers say they would be open to eating irradiated food, up from 50 percent in 1996.
Beef
Industry Offers Plan to Address E. coli Contamination: (January
9, 2003) Knight-Ridder Tribune
The Denver Post: The U.S. beef industry, according to this story, unveiled
a new plan on Wednesday to help protect consumers from E. coli bacterial
contamination. After a two-day conference in San Antonio, industry
representatives were cited as saying they will push for a broad plan that
attacks E. coli throughout the supply chain, from ranches and meatpacking
facilities to grocery stores and fast-food restaurants. Proposals include
vaccinating cattle against E. coli, batch testing of ground beef before it
reaches customers and standardizing
slaughterhouse safety and sanitation practices.
Terry
Stokes, CEO of the Denver-based National Cattlemen's Beef Association, which
coordinated the conference, was quoted as saying, "Safety has always been
our top priority, and as a result, U.S. beef is one of the safest in the world.
But we can do even better. I am confident that the farm-to-table solutions we've
identified at this summit will help us further reduce and eventually eliminate
E. coli in the beef supply."
The story says that the proposals earned preliminary support from the Center for
Science in the Public Interest, traditionally outspoken critic of meat-industry
safety. Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director of the Washington-based
group, was quoted as saying, "I think it signals a shift in industry
thinking. After last summer's outbreaks and recalls, the meat industry seems
more willing to put their safety programs to the test. The meat
industry appears willing to embrace microbial testing programs that it has
previously avoided."
The
beef officials offered few specifics on potential costs of the reforms, when
they might be implemented and whether they would be voluntary or required under
food-safety regulations. Dell Allen, vice president of Wichita-based meatpacker
Excel Corp., was quoted as saying, "Everything we
have done here will move us forward. I've likened the search for (E. coli) to
the search for (Osama) bin Laden. You don't know where it is or how to find it.
But the steps we've taken here will allow us to move forward, improve our
product and make it safer."
A related story say that all U.S. hamburger makers could someday test all beef
samples for dangerous E. coli O157:H7 before making ground beef. Dave
Theno, vice president of Jack in the Box Inc., a chain of 1,870 drive-through
hamburger restaurants, was quoted as saying, "Having uniform sampling will
go a long way toward raising the bar" for keeping E. coli out of beef sold
to consumers. Although there is no assurance that the summit's goals will be
implemented, representatives of five industry segments pledged to work toward
reduction of the E. coli bacteria.
At
the summit were representatives of cattle producers, slaughtering plants,
processors that prepare ground beef, grocery stores and food service companies
such as restaurants.
Among the goals: Using vaccines to immunize cattle against E. coli, based on
research by the University of Nebraska that was announced last week.
Establishing industry wide standards for testing and verifying bacteria-free
meat in packing plants for purposes of measuring progress and comparing success
with other plants. Educating consumers, possibly through
more labeling, on proper cooking. Establishing the latest concepts of food
safety standards in food service companies and requiring meat suppliers to do
the same.
Improving food safety training by food service employees.
Tim Biela, chairman of the summit's meat processing group, was cited as saying that food companies will take the goals approved Wednesday seriously and are likely to implement them, adding, "They don't want to be perceived as not using the best practices to provide safety."
The
strategies could be added to those already being used to reduce E. coli risk,
such as carcass washing systems and thermal pasteurization. Irradiation is also
being used in some meat preparation to kill bacteria.
Since 2000, the number of E. coli infections has dropped by 21 percent,
according to an April 2002 report by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. Even so, there were numerous meat recalls in 2002 because of the
detection of the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria. By Steve Raabe
USDA
to Ignore Public Citizen’s Irradiation
Crusade: (January 8, 2003) Daniel
Yovich for www.meatingplace.com:
Public
Citizen's heavy-handed five-week campaign against the use of irradiated meat in
public schools will have no impact on the Agriculture Department's plan to
include irradiated beef in its School Lunch Program.
Public Citizen legislative representative Tony Corbo confirmed the organization
posted an "action alert" on its Website in November, shortly after
learning of the USDA's call for comment on the inclusion of irradiated meat in
the school lunch purchases. Corbo said he learned of the USDA's call for comment
from the Meatingplace.com.
Of the 682 written comments received by USDA as of Jan. 6, 295 were form letters
signed by individuals from the Public Citizen Website. A Meatingplace.com
review of the comments showed the overwhelming majority of the comments were
from allegedly disgruntled parents of schoolchildren.
But Jerry Redding, a USDA spokesman, said the vast majority of those comments
would be ignored because they do not contain any feedback about how to formulate
the specifications for irradiated meat destined for the nation's schools.
Redding said there has been rampant confusion among some grassroots
organizations that oppose the use of irradiated foods in schools. The farm bill
signed in May by President Bush specifically stated that USDA "shall not
prohibit the use of any technology to improve food safety that has been approved
by the Secretary of Agriculture."
"That means irradiation, and that means it's not open to debate or
discussion about it happening," Redding said. "The only relevant
comments USDA is interested in are those involving how to build the best
specifications to make products that taste good, look good and are healthy. The
rest, frankly, are irrelevant."
Irradiation, which has been endorsed by the World Health Organization, exposes
food to low doses of electrons or gamma rays to destroy deadly microorganisms
such as E. coli O157:H7 and salmonella. The Food and Drug Administration
determined in 1999 it was a safe measure in decreasing food borne pathogens. The
WHO deems it one of the most effective food decontamination methods available
for meat and poultry products.
Public Citizen's Corbo said he didn't believe USDA would ignore the thoughts of
the hundreds of people who wrote to the agency to denounce irradiated meat. He
said USDA is "in a severe state of confusion" and "has a track
record of saying one thing" and then doing the opposite.
"USDA seems to be very confused," Corbo said. "At first, they
said there was a 30-day window for comment. Then they backtracked and said the
period for comment was open ended. The one thing that is clear is that the meat
industry applied enormous pressure to the USDA to get them to ram through this
comment period in such a short period of time."
While Public Citizen has deluged the USDA with form letters and irrational
comments about non-existent dangers from irradiated food, the meat industry has
adopted a quieter approach to getting its side of the story across. Josee Daoust,
the American Meat Industry's public affairs manager, said AMI's comments on the
issue had not been forwarded to USDA as of Jan. 6. Daoust said the comments had
been completed and would be sent to the department in the coming days.
Daoust said she was surprised at the amount of Public Citizen-generated form
letter's forwarded to USDA but said AMI is not intimidated by the group's
lobbying efforts.
"This is a common tactic of groups like Public Citizen, but our substantive
comments are not going to be dictated by their below-the-belt tactics,"
Daoust said.
A nationwide survey conducted by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association found
that 48 percent of Americans are likely to purchase irradiated meat. The
November 2002 survey was up from a 38 percent response in February. Daoust said
education is key in eliminating consumers unfounded fears of eating irradiated
meat.
"There has been a lot of disinformation put out there by groups like Public
Citizen," Daoust said. "Studies have repeatedly shown children have a
much higher risk of getting sick from eating non-irradiated food products. We
have to correct the misperceptions out there.”
Food
Safety and Food Irradiation: What Food and Nutrition Professionals Need To Know:
From a press release:
The Minnesota Nutrition Council, Inc. annual membership meeting scheduled for
Friday, January 24, 2003 in Bloomington, Minnesota will feature focus on food
irradiation.
The
promotional flyer for the event says: Irradiation can improve the quality,
variety and safety of foods. Although other processing plant measures can reduce
bacteria levels in raw foods, irradiation can be more effective because it can
eliminate pathogens such as E. coli 0157:H7, which is especially important for
consumers considered to be at high risk and more susceptible to foodborne
illness.
The American Dietetic Association's position statement encourages nutrition
professionals to work together to educate consumers about this additional food
safety tool. This workshop will help expand participant knowledge of the
facts on food irradiation. 2 CEU's have been applied for Registered Dietitians.
Non-members are welcome to attend. Registration deadline is January 17th.
Registration fee for MNCI Members or students is $20.00. For non-members
the charge is $30.00. For questions call: 651-628-9250. Send payment
to: MNCI, 1910 W County Road B, Room #212, Roseville, MN 55113-5448
Date:
Friday January 24, 2003
Time: 11:30 am-2:00 pm
Place: Metro Office Park; Seminar Room 108, first floor; 2850 Metro Drive,
Bloomington, MN 55425
Agenda:
11:30
Registration and Buffet Lunch (Sample Irradiated Burgers, Sponsored by Minnesota
Beef Council)
11:45 Welcome and Introductions
12:00 World's Safest Food Supply, But - (Update on Food Borne Illness in
Minnesota): Pam York, PhD, MPH, RD, LN, Minnesota Department of Health
12:30 History & Use of Food Irradiation: Dr. Ted Labuza, University of
Minnesota
1:00 Science/Technology of Food Irradiation
Nutritional Aspects of Irradiated Food/Minnesota Model: Michelle Torno, R.D.,
LD, and Ron Eustice, Minnesota Beef Council
1:40 Panel Discussion, all Presenters
2:00 Adjourn
For directions phone 952.854.6980
Food
Irradiation Won't Hurt You -- Ignorance About It Might:
(January 6, 2003) Guelph Mercury via FSNET: Ronald F. Eustice, of the
Minnesota writes in this op-ed that during the next few weeks, Canadians will be
hearing and reading much about irradiation as Health Canada seeks public comment
regarding the expansion of the list
of foods approved for irradiation. Let's hope that Canadians
can base their opinions about irradiation on fact, and not on hearsay, innuendo
and political rhetoric.
Recent
editorial page comments in the Guelph Mercury suggest an urgent need for
clarification about what food irradiation is -- and what it isn't. The American
public has embraced irradiation as a food safety tool because they have been
provided with clear and accurate information about what it is, how it works, and
what it does.
There
is strong public for support irradiation once consumers understand that it
doesn't and can't -- make the food radioactive. The chemical changes that take
place in irradiated food are not significantly different than the changes caused
by other food processing technologies; and that, when done properly, irradiation
has very little effect, if any, on the taste, appearance or nutritional content
of food. Irradiation exposes foods to a radiant energy source, primarily
electron beams or gamma rays. Other forms of radiant energy include alternating
current, heat, light, ultra-violet light, x-rays, and the microwave. The process
reduces or kills bacteria and other pathogenic organisms and increases the shelf
life, quality and safety of foods. Irradiation is not a magic bullet.
Advocates have never contended that it can or should replace the other elements that make up an effective food safety strategy. It's not a replacement for appropriate food production and food-handling practices, both in the food industry and in the home, as characterized in your Dec. 27 editorial. But it provides a vitally important extra measure of protection.
Technologies
such as immunization against disease, pasteurization of milk and chlorination of
water have become universally accepted. In public health terms, the potential
benefits of irradiation are comparable to those achieved when pasteurization
technology was first introduced more than 70 years ago. Special interest groups
were opposed to immunization as well as chlorination, and voiced nearly
identical concerns about pasteurization that are raised about irradiation today.
None of those concerns proved valid.
We all benefit from pasteurization, immunization and chlorination and these procedures are now considered the "pillars of public health." The scientific consensus in favor of food irradiation is overwhelming. It is the most thoroughly studied food processing technology in human history -- by a wide margin. The risks of irradiation are "unknown" because after several decades of intensive research scientists have failed to find any. But we certainly know that irradiation can effectively kill potentially dangerous disease-causing microbes like Salmonella and E.coli O157:H7.
Medical
and scientific experts agree that irradiation can have a significant impact, on
the thousands of food-related illnesses that occur every year -- illnesses that
can sometimes be lethal, especially for young children. According to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA, an estimated 76 million Americans
suffer from food borne illness -- and more than 5,000 die -- every year.
That's why irradiation technology has been endorsed by a long list of
professional groups and health-related government agencies, including the World
Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the U.S. Public Health
Service, the U.S. Food and Drug Association, the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, and the American Dietetic Association.
In May 2000, a small Minnesota meat company became the first processor in the United States to use irradiation to make ground beef safer. From an initial distribution in 84 Minnesota stores, the availability of Huisken's irradiated frozen hamburger patties quickly grew to include thousands of supermarkets in 30 states. More than a dozen major retail chains have added fresh irradiated ground beef to their shelves -- most of these since May 2002. In less than three years, the availability of irradiated fresh and frozen ground beef has expanded from a handful of Minnesota stores to approximately 4,000 supermarkets and hundreds of restaurants nationwide.
Food service establishments are rapidly embracing food irradiation. A year ago, two Dairy Queen franchises in central Minnesota became the first restaurants in the U.S. to use irradiation on hamburger patties. Currently, over 100 Dairy Queen franchises in Minnesota and South Dakota offer irradiated ground beef and the number is expanding weekly. In October 2002, St. Paul-based, Embers America became the first family-style, full-service restaurant to introduce irradiated ground beef. All 65 Embers restaurants in Minnesota, Wisconsin and North and South Dakota now offer irradiated patties.
As
Canadian citizens learn more about irradiation as a food safety tool, let's hope
that Health Canada will listen carefully to legitimate public opinion, as well
as the prevailing scientific consensus on this technology. Hopefully, the
discussion will not be dominated by narrowly focused advocacy groups that
represent neither the public nor the prevailing scientific and public health
consensus on irradiation.Too often in the past, these groups have tended to
dominate the discussion about irradiation, leaving the public with a distorted
impression of its risks and benefits. Let's hope that the voices of the
experts will not be drowned out by the claims of self-interested advocacy groups
with political agendas. This issue is far too important to do otherwise.
Safe
Food: Irradiation Needed to Bring Food Safety to the Next Level: Brainerd
(MN) Daily Dispatch
(July 27, 2002) from an Editorial:
Skepticism
about new technology may sometimes be warranted but failure to accept credible
evidence of its merit is just plain foolish.
This
thought is prompted by the 19 million pound beef recall that was announced July
19 and society's slow acceptance of irradiated foods. This month's beef recall,
prompted by an outbreak of E. Coli, brought home the very real dangers of
foodborne illnesses.
A
Wall Street Journal editorial, citing a Centers for Disease Control figure, said
an estimated 76 million Americans become sick from foodborne pathogens each year
and 5,000 die as a result.
There
is, however, a process through which many of these cases could be eliminated.
That process is food irradiation, a process approved by the Food and Drug
Administration for red meat in 1997. Irradiation involves the use of low levels
of radiation to kill almost all of the pathogens in the goods which are being
zapped.
Its
use for white flour and potatoes was approved by the FDA in the 1960s.
Irradiation was OK'd for pork, spices and fresh produce in the 1980s. It is also
used on medical supplies, cosmetics, contact lens solution and baby pacifiers.
More than 40 countries use irradiation to make food safer.
Dr.
Michael Osterholm, a former Minnesota state epidemiologist, said it is the most
extensively studied food safety technology in our history. Irradiation has the
backing of the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the
American Dietetic Association and the American Gastroenterological Association.
Still,
packaging regulations have resulted in making some consumers reluctant to
purchase irradiated meat. Opponents have raised fears that irradiation will
result in the meat industry being less vigilant about other health standards if
the meat is irradiated.
There
is no evidence to suggest meat or other products become radioactive. One
professor of animal science at Iowa State University compared it to a person who
receives an X-ray at the dentist with little fear of becoming radioactive.
This
skepticism may be changing, aided by recent legislation for food companies to
refer to the process as pasteurization rather than the scarier sounding term
irradiation.
Without
the responsible use of irradiation food safety issues will continue to
unnecessarily plague us and millions will continue to get sick.
World
Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003 at Chicago:
(December 23, 2002) The World Irradiation Congress is scheduled for May 5 to 7,
2003, at Chicago's McCormick Place. The international event will provide a
comprehensive technical and scientific forum to promote the technology and
benefits of food irradiation around the globe. The congress will examine the
future of food irradiation in a comprehensive program that includes analysis of
the: Global situation and outlook on the use of irradiation as a sanitary and
phytosanitary treatment; Major markets and market trends; Technological
developments, such as irradiation facilities and quality assurance; Investment
opportunities; A visit to a commercial food irradiator; a buyer-seller business
conference and technical sessions.
The keynote speaker on May 5 (Monday) will be Dr. Elsa Murano,
USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety, speaking on "Food safety from farm to
fork: the role of food irradiation."
Other top speakers include the CEOS of FMI and GMA; the presidents of IFT and the International Union of Food Science and Technology; the director of National Food Safety & Toxicology Center at Michigan State University; and top officials from the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation, the Minnesota Beef Council and such companies as Huisken Meat Co., International Dairy Queen Inc., Food Technology Service Inc. and Hawaii Pride Inc.
For
more information and to register, contact:
The National Food Safety & Toxicology Center
Michigan State University
165 Food Safety & Toxicology Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1302
517/432-3100
Website:
(www.iaea.org/icgfi/congress.html)
Food
Irradiation Education Activities:
The Minnesota Beef Council, in
cooperation with SureBeam Corporation will be assisting with, conducting or
participating in the following irradiation education activities:
Minneapolis, MN; January 10-12, 2003: Minnesota Women’s Expo
Rochester, MN; January 22, 2003: National Farmers Organization Annual Meeting
Bloomington, MN; January 24, 2003: Minnesota Nutrition Council Inc. Annual Meeting
Nashville, TN; January 27, 2003: Tennessee Beef Council Food Irradiation Seminar
Nashville, TN; January 29, 2003: American National CattleWomen Annual Convention
Minneapolis, MN; February 23-25, UP Show (Upper Midwest Hospitality Show)
Portland, OR; March 4, 2003: Oregon Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Raleigh, NC; March 19, 2003: North Carolina Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Texarkana, AR; April 5-6: American National CattleWomen Region IV Workshop
Harrisburg, PA; April 23-24, 2003: Central Atlantic States' Association of Food and Drug Officials
Monterey, CA: April 28-29: American National CattleWomen Region VI Workshop
St. Cloud, MN; May 1-2, 2003: Minnesota Dietetic Association Conference
Great Falls, MT; May 2-4: American National CattleWomen Region V Workshop
Chicago, IL; May 5-7, 2003: First World Conference on Food Irradiation
Ft. Pierre, SD; June 20-22: American National CattleWomen Region VII Workshop
Green Bay, WI; July 13-15, 2003: National Association of County Agricultural Agents
Jasper, IN; Sept. 23, 2003: Indiana
Environmental Health Association Conference
Food Irradiation Update is being sent as an update on food irradiation by the Minnesota Beef Council. If for any reason you do not want to receive these updates please hit Reply and ask us to delete you from the list of recipients.
Food Irradiation Education Activities
USDA
to Ignore Public Citizen’s
Irradiation
Crusade: (January
8, 2003) Daniel
Yovich for www.meatingplace.com:
Public
Citizen's heavy-handed five-week campaign against the use of irradiated meat in
public schools will have no impact on the Agriculture Department's plan to
include irradiated beef in its School Lunch Program.
Public Citizen legislative representative Tony Corbo confirmed the organization
posted an "action alert" on its Website in November, shortly after
learning of the USDA's call for comment on the inclusion of irradiated meat in
the school lunch purchases. Corbo said he learned of the USDA's call for comment
from the Meatingplace.com.
Of the 682 written comments received by USDA as of Jan. 6, 295 were form letters
signed by individuals from the Public Citizen Website. A Meatingplace.com
review of the comments showed the overwhelming majority of the comments were
from allegedly disgruntled parents of schoolchildren.
But Jerry Redding, a USDA spokesman, said the vast majority of those comments
would be ignored because they do not contain any feedback about how to formulate
the specifications for irradiated meat destined for the nation's schools.
Redding said there has been rampant confusion among some grassroots
organizations that oppose the use of irradiated foods in schools. The farm bill
signed in May by President Bush specifically stated that USDA "shall not
prohibit the use of any technology to improve food safety that has been approved
by the Secretary of Agriculture."
"That means irradiation, and that means it's not open to debate or
discussion about it happening," Redding said. "The only relevant
comments USDA is interested in are those involving how to build the best
specifications to make products that taste good, look good and are healthy. The
rest, frankly, are irrelevant."
Irradiation, which has been endorsed by the World Health Organization, exposes
food to low doses of electrons or gamma rays to destroy deadly microorganisms
such as E. coli O157:H7 and salmonella. The Food and Drug Administration
determined in 1999 it was a safe measure in decreasing food borne pathogens. The
WHO deems it one of the most effective food decontamination methods available
for meat and poultry products.
Public Citizen's Corbo said he didn't believe USDA would ignore the thoughts of
the hundreds of people who wrote to the agency to denounce irradiated meat. He
said USDA is "in a severe state of confusion" and "has a track
record of saying one thing" and then doing the opposite.
"USDA seems to be very confused," Corbo said. "At first, they
said there was a 30-day window for comment. Then they backtracked and said the
period for comment was open ended. The one thing that is clear is that the meat
industry applied enormous pressure to the USDA to get them to ram through this
comment period in such a short period of time."
While Public Citizen has deluged the USDA with form letters and irrational
comments about non-existent dangers from irradiated food, the meat industry has
adopted a quieter approach to getting its side of the story across. Josee Daoust,
the American Meat Industry's public affairs manager, said AMI's comments on the
issue had not been forwarded to USDA as of Jan. 6. Daoust said the comments had
been completed and would be sent to the department in the coming days.
Daoust said she was surprised at the amount of Public Citizen-generated form
letter's forwarded to USDA but said AMI is not intimidated by the group's
lobbying efforts.
"This is a common tactic of groups like Public Citizen, but our substantive
comments are not going to be dictated by their below-the-belt tactics,"
Daoust said.
A nationwide survey conducted by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association found
that 48 percent of Americans are likely to purchase irradiated meat. The
November 2002 survey was up from a 38 percent response in February. Daoust said
education is key in eliminating consumers unfounded fears of eating irradiated
meat.
"There has been a lot of disinformation put out there by groups like Public
Citizen," Daoust said. "Studies have repeatedly shown children have a
much higher risk of getting sick from eating non-irradiated food products. We
have to correct the misperceptions out there.”
Food Irradiation Won't Hurt You -- Ignorance About It Might: (January 6, 2003) Guelph Mercury via FSNET: Ronald F. Eustice, of the Minnesota who attended the recent public workshop in Guelph, Ontario writes in this op-ed that during the next few weeks, Canadians will be hearing and reading much about irradiation as Health Canada seeks public comment regarding the expansion of the list of foods approved for irradiation.
Let's
hope that Canadians can base their opinions about irradiation on fact, and not
on hearsay, innuendo and political rhetoric. Recent editorial page comments in
the Guelph Mercury suggest an urgent need for clarification about what food
irradiation is -- and what it isn't.
Irradiation
is not a magic bullet. Advocates have never contended that it can or should
replace the other elements that make up an effective food safety strategy. It's
not a replacement for appropriate food production and food-handling practices,
both in the food industry and in the home, as characterized in your Dec. 27
editorial. But it provides a vitally important
extra measure of protection.
Technologies
such as immunization against disease, pasteurization of milk and chlorination of
water have become universally accepted. In public health terms, the potential
benefits of irradiation are comparable to those achieved when pasteurization
technology was first introduced more than 70 years ago. Special interest groups
were opposed to immunization as well as chlorination, and voiced nearly
identical concerns about pasteurization that are raised about irradiation today.
None of those concerns proved valid.
We all benefit from pasteurization, immunization and chlorination and these procedures are now considered the "pillars of public health." The scientific consensus in favor of food irradiation is overwhelming. It is the most thoroughly studied food processing technology in human history -- by a wide margin. The risks of irradiation are "unknown" because after several decades of intensive research scientists have failed to find any. But we certainly know that irradiation can effectively kill potentially dangerous disease-causing microbes like Salmonella and E.coli O157:H7.
Medical
and scientific experts agree that irradiation can have a significant impact, on
the thousands of food-related illnesses that occur every year -- illnesses that
can sometimes be lethal, especially for young children. According to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA, an estimated 76 million Americans
suffer from food borne illness -- and more than 5,000 die -- every year.
That's why irradiation technology has been endorsed by a long list of
professional groups and health-related government agencies, including the World
Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the U.S. Public Health
Service, the U.S. Food and Drug Association, the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, and the American Dietetic Association.
In May 2000, a small Minnesota meat company became the first processor in the U.S. to use irradiation to make ground beef safer.From an initial distribution in 84 Minnesota stores, the availability of Huisken's irradiated frozen hamburger patties quickly grew to include thousands of supermarkets in 30 states. More than a dozen major retail chains have added fresh irradiated ground beef to their shelves -- most of these since May 2002. In less than three years, the availability of irradiated fresh and frozen ground beef has expanded from a handful of Minnesota stores to approximately 4,000 supermarkets and hundreds of restaurants nationwide.
Food service establishments are rapidly embracing food irradiation. A year ago, two Dairy Queen franchises in central Minnesota became the first restaurants in the U.S. to use irradiation on hamburger patties. Currently, over 100 Dairy Queen franchises in Minnesota and South Dakota offer irradiated ground beef and the number is expanding weekly. In October 2002, St. Paul-based, Embers America became the first family-style, full-service restaurant to introduce irradiated ground beef. All 65 Embers restaurants in Minnesota, Wisconsin and North and South Dakota now offer irradiated patties.
As Canadian citizens learn more about irradiation as a food safety tool, let's hope that Health Canada will listen carefully to legitimate public opinion, as well as the prevailing scientific consensus on this technology. Hopefully, the discussion will not be dominated by narrowly focused advocacy groups that represent neither the public nor the prevailing scientific and public health consensus on irradiation.
Too often in the past, these groups have tended to dominate the discussion about irradiation, leaving the public with a distorted impression of its risks and benefits. Let's hope that the voices of the experts will not be drowned out by the claims of self-interested advocacy groups with political agendas. This issue is far too important to do otherwise.
Government Finally Moves on Food Irradiation
Safe
Food: Irradiation Needed to Bring Food Safety to the Next Level: Brainerd
(MN) Daily Dispatch
(July 27, 2002) from an Editorial:
Skepticism
about new technology may sometimes be warranted but failure to accept credible
evidence of its merit is just plain foolish.
This
thought is prompted by the 19 million pound beef recall that was announced July
19 and society's slow acceptance of irradiated foods. This month's beef recall,
prompted by an outbreak of E. Coli, brought home the very real dangers of
foodborne illnesses.
A
Wall Street Journal editorial, citing a Centers for Disease Control figure, said
an estimated 76 million Americans become sick from foodborne pathogens each year
and 5,000 die as a result.
There
is, however, a process through which many of these cases could be eliminated.
That process is food irradiation, a process approved by the Food and Drug
Administration for red meat in 1997. Irradiation involves the use of low levels
of radiation to kill almost all of the pathogens in the goods which are being
zapped.
Its use for white flour and potatoes was approved by the FDA in the 1960s. Irradiation was OK'd for pork, spices and fresh produce in the 1980s. It is also used on medical supplies, cosmetics, contact lens solution and baby pacifiers. More than 40 countries use irradiation to make food safer.
Dr.
Michael Osterholm, a former Minnesota state epidemiologist, said it is the most
extensively studied food safety technology in our history. Irradiation has the
backing of the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the
American Dietetic Association and the American Gastroenterological Association.
Still,
packaging regulations have resulted in making some consumers reluctant to
purchase irradiated meat. Opponents have raised fears that irradiation will
result in the meat industry being less vigilant about other health standards if
the meat is irradiated.
There
is no evidence to suggest meat or other products become radioactive. One
professor of animal science at Iowa State University compared it to a person who
receives an X-ray at the dentist with little fear of becoming radioactive.
This
skepticism may be changing, aided by recent legislation for food companies to
refer to the process as pasteurization rather than the scarier sounding term
irradiation.
Without the responsible use of irradiation food safety issues will continue to unnecessarily plague us and millions will continue to get sick.
Irradiation Option For School Meat Moves Forward Despite Concerns
---------
Uninformed Parents Fight Irradiation of Meat in Schools
-------
---------
---------
World
Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003 at Chicago:
(December 23, 2002) The World Irradiation Congress is scheduled for May 5 to 7,
2003, at Chicago's McCormick Place. The international event will provide a
comprehensive technical and scientific forum to promote the technology and
benefits of food irradiation around the globe. The congress will examine the
future of food irradiation in a comprehensive program that includes analysis of
the: Global situation and outlook on the use of irradiation as a sanitary and
phytosanitary treatment; Major markets and market trends; Technological
developments, such as irradiation facilities and quality assurance; Investment
opportunities; A visit to a commercial food irradiator; a buyer-seller business
conference and technical sessions.
The keynote speaker on May 5 (Monday) will be Dr. Elsa Murano, USDA
Undersecretary for Food Safety, speaking on "Food safety from farm to fork:
the role of food irradiation."
Other top speakers include the CEOS of FMI and GMA; the presidents of IFT and the International Union of Food Science and Technology; the director of National Food Safety & Toxicology Center at Michigan State University; and top officials from the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation, the Minnesota Beef Council and such companies as Huisken Meat Co., International Dairy Queen Inc., Food Technology Service Inc. and Hawaii Pride Inc.
For
more information and to register, contact:
The National Food Safety & Toxicology Center
Michigan State University
165 Food Safety & Toxicology Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1302
517/432-3100
Website:
(www.iaea.org/icgfi/congress.html)
Food
Irradiation Education Activities:
The Minnesota Beef Council, in
cooperation with SureBeam Corporation will be assisting with, conducting or
participating in the following irradiation education activities:
Minneapolis, MN; January 10-12, 2003: Minnesota Women’s Expo
Rochester, MN; January 22, 2003: National Farmers Organization Annual Meeting
Bloomington, MN; January 24, 2003: Minnesota Nutrition Council Inc. Annual Meeting
Nashville, TN; January 27, 2003: Tennessee Beef Council Food Irradiation Seminar
Nashville, TN; January 29, 2003: American National CattleWomen Annual Convention
Minneapolis, MN; February 23-25, UP Show (Upper Midwest Hospitality Show)
Portland, OR; March 4, 2003: Oregon Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Raleigh, NC; March 19, 2003: North Carolina Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Texarkana, AR; April 5-6: American National CattleWomen Region IV Workshop
Harrisburg, PA; April 23-24, 2003: Central Atlantic States' Association of Food and Drug Officials
Monterey, CA: April 28-29: American National CattleWomen Region VI Workshop
St. Cloud, MN; May 1-2, 2003: Minnesota Dietetic Association Conference
Great Falls, MT; May 2-4: American National CattleWomen Region V Workshop
Chicago, IL; May 5-7, 2003: First World Conference on Food Irradiation
Ft. Pierre, SD; June 20-22: American National CattleWomen Region VII Workshop
Green Bay, WI; July 13-15, 2003: National Association of County Agricultural Agents
Jasper, IN; Sept. 23, 2003: Indiana Environmental Health Association Conference
Food Irradiation Educational Activities
Government
Finally Moves on Food Irradiation: (December 19, 2002) Guelph Mercury
(Guest Editorial
by Douglas Powell)
After years of toing and froing, Health Canada has finally released a draft proposal to approve the irradiation of ground beef, poultry, shrimp and mangoes. This doesn't mean that grocery stores will stock the product, or that consumers will choose to buy it; but at least Health Canada has now committed itself to a process to ultimately remove itself from an embarrassing regulatory glitch, that recent Mercury coverage of the issue seems to have missed in the editorial "How To Breed Public Cynicism" (The Guelph Mercury, Dec.14).
How could an agency charged with the oversight of the safety of the food supply not approve irradiation, in essence blocking access to a tool that can reduce the impact of foodborne illness on the Canadian public? While the Mercury editorial board seems obsessed with the lack of public consultation, others may ask, what took Health Canada so long? The U.S. approved irradiation of poultry in 1990 and red meat in 1997. Did Canadian scientists find something the U.S. scientists missed? Or is it that years after the initial petitions to Health Canada, the agency is only now moving ahead because of the almost daily reports of consumer support and expanded availability in the United States?
Companies have been
reluctant to market irradiated products, even though the process has been
approved since the 1960s in Canada for wheat, flour, whole wheat flour,
potatoes, onions, spices and seasoning mixes. They fear consumer backlash.
But should they? Or are recent U.S. experiences more indicative of what shoppers
are actually interested in?
Although there have
been many technological and marketing milestones for irradiated foods over the
past century, the current strong consumer support in the U.S. owes to a
widespread, persistent public discussion of foodborne illness for the past
decade, and the decision by Huisken Meat Company of Sauk Rapids, Minn, which
began marketing frozen irradiated hamburger patties in May 2000 at 84 stores.
Instead of buying into misleading consumer surveys and circular rhetoric that
consumers didn't want the technology, Huisken decided to actually give consumers
a choice, with labeled, irradiated ground beef and patties; consumers voted at
the check-out counter. Huisken reported a 35 per cent growth in sales in 2001
compared to 2000, and a 25 per cent increase through July 2002.
Now, irradiated meats
are being offered throughout the U.S. and demand is growing. In 2000, Publix
Super Markets Inc. stated that consumers would dictate whether they stocked
their shelves with irradiated beef. At that time, the demand didn't seem to be
there. Now, Publix, a huge U.S. grocery chain, has announced it will begin
selling irradiated frozen ground beef patties, boneless chicken breasts and
chicken tenders in all 711 of their stores in early 2003.
Beginning with two stores in May 2002, Dairy Queen became the first fast-food chain to use irradiation in its products and now has the products available to over 100 of the franchises in Minnesota and South Dakota. A Dairy Queen spokesman was quoted as saying, "Anytime you're a leader, it's a little scary. But we're confident in the process. Have we had a few concerned calls? Sure. Has it been more than a handful? No."
The company's franchisees pay about five cents a pound more for the irradiated ground beef, but have not passed the increase on to consumers. Health Canada has finally moved and should be applauded. There should also be a thorough airing of concerns related to irradiation. But be wary of misleading claims, especially related to cancer, proffered by those more interested in the politics of food than food safety. As Food Technology magazine, the flagship publication of the not- for-profit international scientific society Institute of Food Technologists emphasized in the current issue, irradiated food could never become radioactive; no study has shown a connection between irradiated food and cancer or birth defects; radiolytic properties similar to those produced by irradiation are also produced when food is grilled or fried; and vitamin losses are insignificant and lower than in other food-processing procedures.
But there are risks, primarily the risk of complacency. Four years ago, an industry type quipped at a conference that if we just zap dangerous bacteria in food, then what's the problem? The problem was this executive's unquestioning faith in food irradiation, an extension of the general belief in any sort of technological fix. But there are no magic bullets. Food irradiation was endorsed more than 20 years ago by the World Health Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency. It has been advocated by a wide range of medical authorities. A majority of consumer and advocacy groups now agree that irradiation is a safe process.
Irradiation is generally played as but another tool to bolster the safety of the food supply, along with enhanced inspection and farm- to-fork food safety controls. But magic bullets have an all-too-human allure.
Consumers must remember that even irradiated food requires refrigeration, safe handling and cooking. And producers and processors have to realize that zapping their way to food safety -- rather than addressing fundamental issues of food production and sanitation that allow new pathogens to emerge and flourish -- will not solve the problems of today. Irradiation can be an effective tool in the food safety arsenal, along with the numerous preventive practices that are already being embraced by many in the food production system, from the farm through to the consumer. But it's still just a tool. Douglas Powell is an associate professor in the department of plant agriculture at the University of Guelph (Ontario).
Irradiation Option
For School Meat Moves Forward Despite Concerns: Education Week (Nov. 6,
2002): Washington: Schools may get to serve federally supplied irradiated meat
to students, under a policy shift that was in the works before a listeria
outbreak sent cafeteria workers scurrying to clean out their refrigerators last
month.
The federal law that provides assistance to American farmers, approved in May,
had already paved the way for irradiated foods to be served through the federal
school lunch program. But more attention is being paid to irradiation—which
kills bacteria and parasites that can cause illness—since the disclosure that
1.8 million pounds of turkey for schools came from a supply tainted with
potentially dangerous listeria bacteria.
Despite a recall of the tainted meat, some of it made onto school lunch tables,
though no illnesses have been reported.
Sometime before the end of the year, the Department of Agriculture will make an
announcement involving irradiation and ground beef supplied to schools through
the lunch program, said Jerry R. Redding, a USDA spokesman, who would not
elaborate. But he did say that school districts will get irradiated meat only if
they request it.
"The Food and Nutrition Service polls the school districts," Mr.
Redding said. "If they say they want it, we'll buy it."
The federal government approved the sale of irradiated meat in 1999, but it was
barred from being used in the school lunch program. A clause in the farm bill
lifted that prohibition, Mr. Redding said.
Irradiated food has been deemed safe by the World Health Organization and the
American Medical Association. According to information from the federal Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, the process uses ionizing radiation to kill
bacteria and "does not harm the nutritional value of food, nor does it make
the food unsafe to eat."
But some groups remain concerned. Public Citizen, a Washington-based consumer-
advocacy organization, opposes irradiated foods, especially for schools, said
Monique M. Mikhail, an organizer for Public Citizen's food-irradiation policy
team. Ms. Mikhail said her group believes long-term studies need to be done. She
said that irradiation leaves "radiolytic products" in the food, and
that some recent studies had shown eating irradiated foods promoted the growth
of cancer in rats.
"If there's any question about the safety of this technology, why serve
irradiated food to this country's children?" she said. Ms. Mikhail said
cafeterias would not be required to label irradiated food, "obstructing the
parent's right to know what their children are eating."
Was Action Too Slow?
Instead, the government should focus on cleaning up the meat industry, Ms.
Mikhail said.
Last month, an outbreak of the listeria monocytogenes bacteria at the
Wampler Foods plant in Franconia, Pa., prompted the recall of 27.4 million
pounds of cooked turkey and chicken products—the largest recall of its kind in
USDA history. The department has purchased about 1.8 million pounds of that
turkey for the school lunch program. Listeria can cause severe illness
and death in some cases.
Following the recall, some lawmakers, school officials, and others expressed
worries that it had taken too long to initiate that step.
Nancy J. Donley, the president of the Burlington, Vt.- based Safe Tables Our
Priority, said federal officials should have alerted schools earlier. Instead,
the lag time meant some students were served the Wampler meat.
In the Cumberland Valley school district in Mechanicsburg, Pa., for example,
officials didn't get the word they had received Wampler meat until after it had
served 52 pounds of turkey at a salad bar.
"To wait until the last minute with your most vulnerable population is just
unconscionable," Ms. Donley said.
But Steven Cohen, a spokesman for the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service,
said that other than a minor delay for a holiday, schools were notified quickly.
"The system worked as designed," he said.
Whether students and parents will tolerate cafeterias' use of irradiated meats
is anyone's guess. Information campaigns could make a difference.
In New York state, a group called Rochestarians Against the Misuse of Pesticides
is pushing school districts to adopt resolutions against serving irradiated
foods. To date, none have done so.
But in Minnesota, where the benefits of irradiation have been touted publicly
and grocery stores and some restaurants carry irradiated meat, parents and
students may be more welcoming.
"We anticipate irradiated meat will be available in the next year or
two"' through the school lunch program, said Mary S. Begalle, the director
of food and nutrition services for the Minnesota Department of Children,
Families, and Learning. "We want local groups to get good information on
this option to help them make decisions."
Because of concerns with the recall process, irradiation could provide an added
measure of protection, said the American Meat Institute's president and chief
executive officer, J. Patrick Boyle. By Michelle R. Davis
Uninformed Parents fight Irradiation of Meat in Schools: (Dec. 26, 2002) Topeka Capital-Journal
It
seemed like such a good idea. Earlier this year the Bush administration came up
with a plan to allow irradiated meat to be served to millions of schoolchildren
in the United States.
Irradiation
exposes food to low doses of electrons or gamma rays to destroy potentially
deadly organisms like salmonella, E. coli 0157 or listeria. The
hope was that the process would add yet another layer of safety to meat served
to students through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's school lunch program,
which provides free or low-cost meals to 27 million school children each day.
Congress
was sold enough on the benefits of irradiation that lawmakers added a section to
the new farm bill that requires the USDA to allow government-approved food
safety technology to be used in commodities purchased for the federal school
lunch program.
In
November, the Agriculture Department asked for public input on implementing a
program for irradiated beef to be used in the program and reportedly has
received around 200 responses. According to Reuters News Service, most are from
parents who oppose the plan. Many of the comments show a pronounced ignorance
about the potential benefits of irradiation, not to mention downright hostility
toward the meat industry itself.
One
parent from New York said that "years from now we shall look back with
regret on the day we started feeding irradiated food to our children."
A
lady from Florida, urging the USDA to reject the plan, claimed "innocent
children will pay the price for the meat industry's laziness."
In
fact, the USDA has received several comments from parents who suggested that the
use of irradiation may give meat companies an excuse to relax their food safety
programs, leaving animal feces or other contaminants in meat.
Another
parent from Wisconsin was a bit more pointed in his comments. He said, "As
a parent, I will stop allowing my children to eat school cafeteria food if
irradiated food is allowed to be served."
When
I read many of the comments that the USDA has been receiving on the irradiation
plan, I was shocked. Why would any knowledgeable parent be opposed to a
technology that could help ensure the food their children eat in school is free
of potentially dangerous pathogens? Why would some parents deny their children
(and the rest of the children who participate in the school lunch program) the
benefits of a technology that has been endorsed by the World Health
Organization, the Food and Drug Administration and the American Medical
Association?
The
meat industry claims that most of the parents who have submitted comments on the
plan were pawns of a Washington-based group known as Public Citizen, which
strongly opposes the irradiation plan. If that's true, and if the group is
successful in "loading" the public comment process with negative
reaction to the irradiation plan, a powerful tool to improve food safety in the
school lunch program could be denied to the vast majority of children whose
parents are either in favor of the plan or feel that irradiation should be
allowed so long as products are clearly labeled as such.
By
instituting a fear-mongering campaign against irradiated meat, Public Citizen
and those who support their cause, are misinforming the public about the true
nature of modern irradiation methods --- which are really nothing more than
electronic pasteurization. They also are doing a terrible disservice to the U.S.
meat industry, which has made significant strides in its efforts to detect and
eliminate harmful bacteria in meat products.
Irradiated
meat products only now are beginning to show up in grocery store meat counters.
Hy-Vee stores in Nebraska, Iowa and surrounding states began offering irradiated
ground beef several months ago. So far, the product has been well received by
consumers. Recent surveys by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association clearly
show growing public support for the technology.
Just
this past week, the SureBeam Corp., based in San Diego, announced it has
received a federal patent on its electron beam irradiation food safety system.
The firm, which has been a pioneer in food irradiation and X-ray technology,
says its system uses electricity to kill harmful bacteria in meat in much the
same way that a microwave oven heats your food.
I
wonder how many of the parents who have been so outspoken against the USDA meat
irradiation proposal refuse to use a microwave oven in their homes? Kelly
Lenz is farm director for AM 580 WIBW Radio and the Kansas Agriculture Network.
The meat
packing/processing sector -- and meat producers, restaurateurs and retailers --
are dealing with an endless list of pathogen problems and responding to them
with an expanding list of pathogen reduction strategies, he said, noting
strategies from dehairing hides at the front of the plant to steam vacuuming
carcasses at the end of the process.
"As an industry,
we believe that we're doing just about everything that we can, and we're even a
little complacent. But there's a lot more that we can do (because) we still are
not sterilizing" carcasses, he said.
Besides, carcasses
still have to go through fabrication, and especially in the case of ground beef,
decontamination often does not hold up, he said.
"There's a lot
of mountain to climb," he said, "and this is what food safety is all
about. It's all about protecting the food supply" for children and other
consumers.
Irradiation is one
very good route up that mountain, Pohlman and Morton Satin, executive director
of the International Food Agribusiness Management Assn., said.
Pohlman and Satin
opened a session on irradiation processing at the annual meeting of the American
Meat Institute (AMI) in New Orleans earlier this fall.
As a pathogen
reduction strategy, irradiation provides the additional advantage of penetration
as it can render sterile the entire product -- as thick as 3.12 in., inside and
outside, raw or in the package -- said Satin, who also is associated with the
department of economics at Texas A&M University.
Furthermore,
irradiation does this without compromising any of the attributes of the product
from color to taste and is fast and inexpensive, he said.
Irradiation is not a
new, unconsidered process, he added, noting that the technology was considered
more than a century ago in 1896 as a means to make meat safe, although it did
not receive much attention until the 1950s when the military started to
irradiate field meals and the 1960s when NASA started to develop meals that
could be taken into space.
However, irradiation
is still struggling to be accepted, much as did pasteurization at the beginning
of the 1900s, Satin said, reporting that the American Medical Assn. and public
health officials actually had to counter opposition to pasteurization by dairy
producers themselves.
Contaminated raw milk
was causing diseases and a major public health crisis, he said, but consumer
activists and dairy producers were saying that pasteurization was a cover for
selling stale milk and unsanitary processing plants, and dairy processors were
saying that pasteurization labels would be frightening to consumers.
"There was a lot
of nonsense that sounds familiar to those of us" who are now advocating
irradiation of meat products, he said.
By the early 1920s,
however, pasteurization had caught on and in fact was made mandatory is much of
the U.S., he said, but was not fully implemented in other parts of the world
until as recently as the 1980s. Scotland, which adopted milk pasteurization in
1983, went from having the most milk-caused illnesses in Europe to the least in
the first year of mandatory pasteurization, he said.
Admittedly, there is
and will be resistance, he said, but milk producers and processors, consumer
activists and others resisted pasteurization, too -- "Europe resisted
pasteurization 60 years longer than the U.S." Irradiation will become
"the food safety gold standard," he predicted.
Wegmans Food Markets,
a 60-plus store retail system in the northeastern U.S., introduced a line of
fresh, irradiated ground beef earlier this year, and it rapidly became "a
VIP -- a very impressive product --" according to Jeanne Colleluori, the
company's communications and consumer affairs specialist.
The line has captured
a 15% share of ground beef sales systemwide, with as much as a 45% share in some
stores, when the company expected a 10% average, and customers are paying 10-30
cents/lb., depending on leanness percent, more for the product than for
non-irradiated product, she said in reporting the company's experience to the
AMI session.
Colleluori and
company food safety specialist Kathleen O'Donnell said Wegmans introduced fresh,
irradiated product because of the responsibility to offer consumers a food
safety alternative in the ground beef section. Contaminated ground beef can
sicken people and even lead to death, Colleluori said, and "we had a
responsibility to introduce this product and do it in a public way and tell
people how to use it."
Colleluori and
O'Donnell said the company hit the wording issue straight on by labeling the
product as irradiated and made sure that customers received answers to every
question. Employees were educated first so that they understood irradiation and
could explain it to customers, the two said, and embargoed news releases were
distributed early to reporters so that they could interview company and other
sources and prepare in-depth stories for the day of the announcement of the
introduction of the line.
The announcement then
was made at three news conferences on May 13, they said, and company officials,
public health officials, university specialists and U.S. Department of
Agriculture representatives were on hand to answer questions. Samples were
provided for several weeks so that customers could not only taste irradiated
burgers but ask more questions, they said.
"We knew this
would be a lot different than launching a new flavor of cereal," Colleluori
said.
Feedback has been
both predictable and unpredictable, Colleluori and O'Donnell said, including the
expected accusations that the company is selling irradiated ground beef to cover
dirty meat and that irradiation is unhealthy and needs more testing to
unexpected interest in when additional irradiated meat products will be
available. They said customers even expressed interest in learning more about
at-home food safety practices.
They added that the
company has had to deal with Public Citizen, a consumer activist group opposed
to irradiation that organized a letter-writing campaign urging Wegmans to take
the irradiated product out of its stores and organized a protest in front of one
store. They said most of the letters were from addresses outside the Wegmans'
market, and the protested store invited reporters inside to answer questions and
serve product samples that resulted in coverage of the protest that was well
inside newspaper and television reports.
They said the company
countered letters to the editor with statements from USDA and arranged for an
irradiation educator to appear with a Public Citizen spokesperson on a call-in
radio show.
Colleluori and
O'Donnell said they would encourage other retailers to adopt irradiated ground
beef programs, saying that irradiation is important to public health and every
new program will help educate consumers in the importance of the technology.
Dairy Queen encourages wide adoption of technology
International Dairy
Queen Corp. introduced irradiated hamburgers in selected stores earlier this
year "not as insurance but as assurance" for customers, according to
Glenn Lindsey, vice president for research and development.
In reporting his
company's experience to the AMI session, Lindsey said introducing irradiated
burgers is risky both for the company and its participating franchisees,
especially in that the launch is an all-or-nothing program in which
participating stores have no alternative burger product and that the additional
costs involved are not passed on to customers. "It's our responsibility to
provide clean, safe food," he said, "and we've made the decision not
to ask customers to pay for food safety by raising their prices."
Lindsey said the
irradiated burgers were introduced in two rural-Minnesota Dairy Queens Feb. 11
and then to 11 other rural-Minnesota stores May 8 and to 30 Minneapolis-St. Paul
stores July 8, the last representing the actual public launch at which time a
news conference was held with public health officials and other authorities to
provide third-party endorsements (Feedstuffs,
July 15). (At the time he spoke to the session, there were 120 DQs in
Minnesota, Iowa and North and South Dakota selling irradiated burgers. The
company is headquartered in Minneapolis.)
Prior to the
introduction, the company worked with participating stores and their employees,
as well as with corporate personnel, to make sure that everyone understood the
importance of the irradiation project and was committed to the project, he said.
The company needed to be sure that there was full support "from the chief
executive officer to the franchisee" and that everyone from the CEO to
store employees could answer customers' questions, he said.
Upon introduction, a
restaurant becomes engaged in full disclosure so that customers entering the
store know that it only serves irradiated burgers and cheeseburgers, he said:
There are posters on doors, counter mats, tray liners and table tents saying
that the store is selling burgers that are "Irradiated for Food
Safety" and that customers can "Enjoy with Confidence." The
information is also available in drive-thrus, he said, and there are brochures
about irradiation and Dairy Queen's program that customers can take with them.
"It would be
unethical not to do this," he said.
Lindsey said the
company has fielded the expected protests from Public Citizen and other activist
organizations, including a letter-writing campaign to meat processors who make
patties for Dairy Queen and allegations that irradiation "is a questionable
technology" that's opposed by livestock producers and "masks the
problem that filth is being sterilized."
However, protests
have captured little to no publicity and have since subsided, he said, and
consumers have responded very favorably, with 30% of respondents to a
questionnaire saying that they are somewhat or significantly increasing burger
purchases at DQ stores due to irradiation and 67% saying they are buying as many
as before.
Although Dairy Queen
is not raising burger prices, he reported that 50% of customers say they would
pay more for irradiated burgers: 17.75% saying they would pay 5 cents more,
51.76% saying 5-10 cents more, 15.66% saying 15-20 cents more, 10.11% saying
25-30 cents more and 4.72% saying 30 cents-plus more.
Lindsey said the
company has learned that to make an irradiation program work, it's critical for
management, staff and franchisees and their employees to be educated in
irradiation and trained to answer customers' questions and has learned that
informed consumers will buy irradiated burgers. He also said the technology
should be considered "an added food safety step, not our food safety
step."
He said the company
plans to continue rolling out the program system wide and sharing what it's
learning with other foodservice businesses and encouraging them to adopt similar
programs. Every time a foodborne illness is traced to a foodservice
establishment, DQ or otherwise, it's a black eye for the entire industry, he
said. By Rod Smith, Feedstuffs Staff Editor
How
to Breed Public Cynicism
(December 14, 2002)
The Guelph Mercury (From an editorial opinion)
Guelph,
Ontario: This week's public consultation meeting in Guelph on food irradiation
is a perfect example of why there is cynicism about the federal government's
professed desire to listen to what the public has to say.
The
meeting was one of only seven that will be held across Canada -- four in
December in Montreal, Toronto, Guelph and Halifax, and three in January in
Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver -- to hear what the public has to say about
expanding the list of foods where irradiation will be permitted. With poultry
and ground beef on the proposed list this is hardly a minor change to food
regulations in this country.
Health
Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency think the proposal is a good
idea, that it will help reduce the incidence of foodborne illness from bacteria
such as e-coli and Salmonella, and extend the shelf life of fresh and frozen
poultry, fresh and frozen ground beef, prepackaged fresh, frozen, prepared and
dried shrimp and prawns and mangoes.
Irradiation
involves exposing foods to gamma rays, electron beams or x-rays. Most of the
energy passes through the food, but a small amount is absorbed and can kill
disease-causing bacteria. For the meats and seafood, the industries argued in
their submissions to Health Canada (which started this process) that irradiation
will reduce the growth of harmful microbes and extend shelf life. Another
submission to Health Canada argued that irradiation of imported mangoes would
control fruit flies and weevils and delay ripening.
No one can
argue with the need to guard against foodborne illness. But critics of expansion
of irradiation say another technology that alters food is attacking the problem
from the wrong end. They say industry should clean up its act and use safer food
handling techniques.
The
creation of the superpig is a genetic wonder, but is it better to produce a pig
that excretes less phosphorous, or to house pigs in a less stressful environment
and in numbers where they are not producing more manure than the surrounding
fields can handle? Similarly with irradiation. Is this the way to go, or are
critics right that it will only increase sloppy farm management and poor food
handling practices? Will we be eating irradiated, but safe, feces in our
irradiated hamburgers?
At Guelph,
the small number of people who were aware of the meeting consisted primarily of
supporters of the new technology. Two Guelph police officers spent the evening
in a back room at the Arboretum Centre in case the controversial topic sparked
trouble, but how could there be trouble when many of the environmentalists were
not aware of the meeting, or found out about it too late to change their plans?
It is interesting that a proponent from the Minnesota was in attendance to talk
about how Dairy Queen has embraced irradiation of beef in the United States, but
most of the local activists who would normally come out for a debate about a
technology that alters food were conspicuous by their absence.
Health
Canada placed one-day ads in Guelph and Toronto newspapers to announce the
Guelph and Toronto meetings and sent 650 letters to people across Canada with an
interest in food irradiation. Health Canada's public consultation policy does
not require a media advisory be issued and none are planned.
Just as
one ad on a Saturday in the local paper did not cut it to let the public know
about a plan by the Upper Grand District School Board to sell Torrance Public
School, one ad a few days before such an important meeting is not enough to
ensure Canadians are adequately consulted before the store shelves are stocked
with irradiated poultry that is safe, but may have been sitting on the shelf for
22 days.
The
scientists may be right that there is nothing to worry about. But reassurances
that records will be inspected and random tests will be done to keep tabs on
producers, processors and retailers are cold comfort in the post-Walkerton era.
Do
Canadians realize that labeling requirements will not apply to food served in
restaurants? Or that the process causes a loss of vitamins and produces new
chemical compounds in the food? Polls show Canadians support the Kyoto Accord
despite opposition by business and several provincial governments. Polls also
show that Canadians believe indiscriminate cosmetic use of pesticides is out of
control and restrictions are needed to protect our health and environment.
Fifty-four per cent of these same Canadians, in a National Angus Reid poll cited
by Health Canada at Wednesday's meeting in Guelph, said they would not buy
irradiated food because of safety concerns.
If
the government wants the public to have confidence in irradiation, then a full
and transparent process is needed. What is happening right now falls far short.
World Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003 at Chicago: (December 23, 2002)
The
World Irradiation Congress is scheduled for May 5 to 7, 2003, at Chicago's
McCormick Place. The international event will provide a comprehensive technical
and scientific forum to promote the technology and benefits of food irradiation
around the globe. The congress will examine the future of food irradiation in a
comprehensive program that includes analysis of the: Global situation and
outlook on the use of irradiation as a sanitary and phytosanitary treatment;
Major markets and market trends; Technological developments, such as irradiation
facilities and quality assurance; Investment opportunities; A visit to a
commercial food irradiator; a buyer-seller business conference and technical
sessions.
The keynote speaker on May 5 (Monday) will be Dr. Elsa Murano, USDA
Undersecretary for Food Safety, speaking on "Food safety from farm to fork:
the role of food irradiation."
Other top speakers include the CEOS of FMI and GMA; the presidents of IFT and the International Union of Food Science and Technology; the director of National Food Safety & Toxicology Center at Michigan State University; and top officials from the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation, the Minnesota Beef Council and such companies as Huisken Meat Co., International Dairy Queen Inc., Food Technology Service Inc. and Hawaii Pride Inc.
For more information
and to register, contact:
The National Food Safety & Toxicology Center
Michigan State University
165 Food Safety & Toxicology Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1302
517/432-3100
Website: (www.iaea.org/icgfi/congress.html)
Food Irradiation
Education Activities:
The Minnesota
Beef Council, in cooperation with SureBeam Corporation will be assisting with,
conducting or participating in the following irradiation education activities:
Minneapolis, MN; January 10-12, 2003: Minnesota Women’s Expo
Rochester, MN; January 22, 2003: National Farmers Organization Annual Meeting
Bloomington, MN; January 24, 2003: Minnesota Nutrition Council Inc. Annual Meeting
Nashville, TN; January 27, 2003: Tennessee Beef Council Food Irradiation Seminar
Nashville, TN; January 29, 2003: American National CattleWomen Annual Convention
Minneapolis, MN; February 23-25, UP Show (Upper Midwest Hospitality Show)
Portland, OR; March 4, 2003: Oregon Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Raleigh, NC; March 19, 2003: North Carolina Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Texarkana, AR; April 5-6: American National CattleWomen Region IV Workshop
Harrisburg, PA; April 23-24, 2003: Central Atlantic States' Association of Food and Drug Officials
Monterey, CA: April 28-29: American National CattleWomen Region VI Workshop
St. Cloud, MN; May 1-2, 2003: Minnesota Dietetic Association Conference
Great Falls, MT; May 2-4: American National CattleWomen Region V Workshop
Chicago, IL; May 5-7, 2003: First World Conference on Food Irradiation
Ft. Pierre, SD; June 20-22: American National CattleWomen Region VII Workshop
Green Bay, WI; July 13-15, 2003: National Association of County Agricultural Agents
Jasper, IN; Sept. 23, 2003: Indiana Environmental Health Association Conference
December 26, 2002
FOOD IRRADIATION UPDATE
DECEMBER 26, 2002
Food Irradiation Update is published by the Minnesota Beef Council
Irradiated Meat: To Your Health
Food
Irradiation Educational Activities
World Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003 at Chicago: (December 23, 2002) The World Irradiation Congress is scheduled for May 5 to 7, 2003, at Chicago's McCormick Place. The international event will provide a comprehensive technical and scientific forum to promote the technology and benefits of food irradiation around the globe.
Organized by the National Food Safety & Toxicology Center, the "First World Congress on Food Irradiation: Meeting the Challenge of International Trade" is co-sponsored by the Grocery Manufacturers of America, the Food Marketing Institute, the Institute of Food Technologists and the International Union of Food Science and Technology, with financial support from MDS Nordion, SureBeam Inc., Steris Inc. and the Minnesota Beef Council.
The congress will examine the future of food irradiation in a comprehensive program that includes analysis of the: Global situation and outlook on the use of irradiation as a sanitary and phytosanitary treatment; Major markets and market trends; Technological developments, such as irradiation facilities and quality assurance; Investment opportunities; A visit to a commercial food irradiator; A buyer-seller business conference and technical sessions.
With regulatory approvals pending in food trading nations such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union, trade in irradiated meat, poultry, seafood, fresh fruits, vegetables, spices and dried seasonings should increase significantly near term. Several Asian, Africa and Latin American countries have already strengthened their regulatory infrastructure and are in a position to implement international trade in some irradiated food commodities immediately.
Potential importers of irradiated food products are invited to meet with the exporters to plan future activities under the guidance of global experts in food irradiation. Attendees will include growers, food producers and processors, shipper-packers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, importers, exporters, foodservice operators, regulatory authorities involved in sanitary and phytosanitary food treatments, irradiation providers and equipment manufacturers, scientists and representatives of consumer organizations.
The Congress includes an International Trade Conference where attendees can get the latest ideas and benefits from international food irradiation experts to help expand business opportunities and to enter new markets and an Irradiated Food Exposition featuring the top companies in food irradiation and irradiation services, plus irradiated food producers and processors marketing irradiated products.
The keynote speaker on May 5 (Monday) will be Dr. Elsa Murano, USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety, speaking on "Food safety from farm to fork: the role of food irradiation."
Other top speakers include the CEOS of FMI and GMA; the presidents of IFT and the International Union of Food Science and Technology; the director of National Food Safety & Toxicology Center at Michigan State University; and top officials from the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation, the Minnesota Beef Council and such companies as Huisken Meat Co., International Dairy Queen Inc., Food Technology Service Inc. and Hawaii Pride Inc.
Key topics include USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service rule on irradiation phytosanitary treatment, with A. Green, APHIS assistant director; the prospects for trade in irradiated produce from South Africa, fruits from Australia and New Zealand and Brazil, foods from Asia and irradiated dried fruits and nuts from Turkey.
On May 7 (Wednesday), a tour bus will take attendees on a "behind-the-scenes" tour of SureBeam's e-beam facility and the Steris gamma irradiation facility in the Chicago area, followed by a visit a local grocery store to see how irradiated products are being marketed at the retail level. From a Press Release
For
more information and to register, contact:
The National Food Safety & Toxicology Center
Michigan State University
165 Food Safety & Toxicology Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1302
517/432-3100
National Food Processor’s Association Comments to USDA regarding Irradiated Products for School Lunch Program (December 20, 2002) From a Press Release via FSNET
The National Food Processors Association (NFPA) submitted the following comments the USDA/AMS request for input regarding Farm Bill requirements on approved food safety technologies for use in commodity purchase programs.
The National Food Processors Association (NFPA) is the voice of the $500 billion food processing industry on scientific and public policy issues involving food safety, nutrition, technical and regulatory matters, food security and consumer affairs. NFPA's three scientific centers, its scientists and professional staff represent food industry interests on government and regulatory affairs and provide research, technical services, education, communications and crisis management support for the association's U.S. and international members. NFPA members produce processed and packaged fruit, vegetable, and grain products, meat, poultry, and seafood products, snacks, drinks and juices, or provide supplies and services to food manufacturers.
NFPA is very supportive of the provisions in the 2002 Farm Bill that remove unfounded restrictions on the use of proven food safety technologies within commodity purchase programs. These technologies will enhance the safety of foods used in nutrition programs, including the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, and other Child Nutrition Programs. Reduction of foodborne pathogens in the food supply will accomplish not only reduced foodborne disease, but will lessen the burden on the cost of public and private healthcare-associated treatment of foodborne illness. We recognize that pathogen intervention technologies are advancing and see no reason that these should not be employed when deemed safe, have received approval by FDA and/or USDA, and are appropriate for applications to foods.
NFPA
is particularly interested in new food safety technologies that are: (1)
Efficacious; (2) Safe; (3) Protect public health; and (4) Enhance
consumers' confidence in the food supply. We see the use of technologies
that provide pathogen interventions as another important "tool" for
food processors to further ensure the safety of the food supply. These
technologies supplement existing safety programs by providing additional
safeguards. Their use does not encourage or provide for the relaxation of
already rigorous sanitation and safety practices, such as HACCP and SSOPs. NFPA
recommends that parties interested in discussions on the safety of irradiation
and other aspects of its use in foods examine the following information on these government websites:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/larc/Irradiation_Q_
<http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/larc/Irradiation_Q_&A.htm
&A.htm
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/topics/irrmenu.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/foodirradiation.htm
Food irradiation has been proven to reduce the level of pathogens in treated
ground meat or poultry. Depending upon the treatment dosage, various
levels of pathogen reduction may be achieved. If suppliers were permitted
to use irradiation for AMS commodity purchases, they could use this approved
food safety intervention to reduce or eliminate harmful pathogens from ground meat
and poultry commodity shipments and better assure compliance with USDA
microbiological specifications. In fact, for raw meat and poultry,
irradiation is currently the only intervention that can be relied on to ensure
compliance with the AMS microbiological specifications for Child Nutrition
Programs; the existing USDA testing regime can never provide adequate assurance
that harmful pathogens are not present in ground meat or poultry commodity
purchases. In order to ensure Child Nutrition Programs provide the
safest food available, we urge you to immediately make changes to the program to
allow the use of irradiated meat and poultry. Failure to do so leaves
children who consume these products more vulnerable to illness outbreaks than
the general public. It is interesting to note that it is the general
public that more and more is recognizing and accepting the food safety benefits
of irradiated foods.
We
believe Section 4201 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002
(Pub. L. 107-171) prohibits discrimination against approved food safety
technologies in AMS commodity purchases for various Child Nutrition Programs.
Irradiation is a food safety technology that has been demonstrated
to be safe and has thus been approved by the FDA for use in several foods,
including meat and poultry products. FSIS has established regulations
allowing irradiation of meat and poultry products. Therefore, AMS
commodity purchase specifications for ground beef and poultry products that
prohibit the use of irradiation are discriminatory against irradiation, are an
affront to the food safety advantages that irradiation provides, and are in
violation of the law.
NFPA believes that provisions of the 2002 Farm Bill are clear and that its implementation is a simple matter. AMS should remove the prohibition against irradiated product from its specifications for ground beef and other commodities. The current microbial specifications could remain unchanged. However, because irradiation treatment of meat and poultry products occurs subsequent to packaging, the microbial specifications need to be adjusted to provide that sampling of irradiated products should be conducted on finished packaged product.
Piggly Wiggly and Dick's Supermarkets to Sell Surebeam Processed Fresh Ground Beef Throughout Wisconsin, Northern Illinois— From a Press Release-- (December 3, 2002)-- Consumers can now buy SureBeam (R) processed fresh ground beef at Piggly Wiggly and Dick's Supermarkets throughout Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Fresh Brands, Inc., the parent 101 stores operating as Piggly Wiggly and Dick's Supermarkets, begins offering case-ready fresh ground beef processed with SureBeam Corporation's revolutionary electron beam technology, a process that uses ordinary electricity to safely eliminate the threat of dangerous bacteria from food products.
"By offering SureBeam processed fresh ground beef, Fresh Brands continues its tradition of providing a quality product to its customers," said Michael Houser, vice chairman and executive vice president/chief marketing officer of Fresh Brands, Inc. "Consumers can now be assured that the product they purchase also provides them with an added measure of safety in addition to giving them great tasting ground beef.
Piggly Wiggly and Dick's Supermarkets are selling SureBeam processed fresh ground beef products in one-pound case-ready packages of 93-percent and 85-percent lean.
"I'm pleased to have Fresh Brands join the growing list of leading supermarkets selling SureBeam processed ground beef," stated Larry Oberkfell, SureBeam Chairman, President and CEO. "By offering SureBeam processed ground beef, Fresh Brands continues to define the Piggly Wiggly and Dick's Supermarkets as quality brands."
Similar
to a microwave oven, SureBeam technology uses electricity as an energy source to
irradiate harmful bacteria such as E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella. The
SureBeam patented system is based on proven electron beam technology that
destroys dangerous bacteria, much like thermal pasteurization does to milk.
Fresh
Brands entry into the market brings to over 1,200 the total number of stores in
the Midwest, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States offering SureBeam processed fresh
ground beef.
Fresh
Brands, Inc. is a supermarket retailer and grocery wholesaler through
corporate-owned retail, franchised and independent supermarkets. The
corporate-owned and franchised retail supermarkets currently operate under the
Piggly Wiggly and Dick's Supermarkets brands. Fresh Brands currently has
74 franchised Piggly Wiggly supermarkets, 27 corporate-owned Piggly Wiggly and
Dick's Supermarkets, two distribution centers and a centralized bakery/deli
production facility. The company controls nearly one billion dollars in
retail grocery sales. Stores are located throughout Wisconsin and northern
Illinois.
Effect
of Gamma Irradiation on Listeria Monocytogenes in Frozen, Artificially
Contaminated Sandwiches
(November 2002) Journal of Food Protection: Vol. 65, No. 11, pp. 17401744; S.
CLARDY, D. M. FOLEY, F. CAPORASO, M. L. CALICCHIA, and A. PRAKASH
ABSTRACT
Gamma irradiation has been shown to effectively control L. monocytogenes
in uncooked meats but has not been extensively studied in ready-to-eat foods.
The presence of Listeria in ready-to-eat foods is often due to post process
contamination by organisms in the food-manufacturing environment. Because gamma
irradiation is applied after products are packaged, the treated foods are
protected from environmental recontamination. Currently, a petition to allow
gamma irradiation of ready-to-eat foods is under review by the Food and Drug
Administration. This study was conducted to determine if gamma irradiation could
be used to control L. monocytogenes in ready-to-eat sandwiches. Ham and
cheese sandwiches were contaminated with L. monocytogenes, frozen at 40°C,
and exposed to gamma irradiation. Following irradiation, sandwiches were assayed for L. monocytogenes. A triangle
test was performed to determine if irradiated and non-irradiated sandwiches
differed in sensory quality. We found that the D10-values ranged from 0.71 to
0.81 kGy and that a 5-log reduction would require irradiation with 3.5 to 4.0
kGy. The results of a 39-day storage study of sandwiches inoculated with 107 CFU
of L. monocytogenes per g indicated that counts for non-irradiated
sandwiches remained fairly constant. Counts for sandwiches treated with 3.9 kGy
decreased by 5 log units initially and then decreased further during storage at
4°C. Sensory panelists could distinguish between irradiated and non-irradiated
sandwiches but were divided on whether irradiation adversely affected sandwich
quality. Our results suggest that manufacturers of ready-to-eat foods could use
gamma irradiation to control L. monocytogenes and improve the safety of
their products. Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Chapman University,
One University Drive, Orange, California 92866
Department of Biological Sciences, Chapman University, One University Drive,
Orange, California 92866 P.O. Box 61037, Los Angeles, California 90061, USA http://www.foodprotection.org/QuickLinks.htm
Irradiated Food List Set to be Expanded: Health Canada Begins Public Hearings (December 12, 2002) The Edmonton Journal Via FS NET: Starting this week, Health Canada will, according to this story, be asking people across the country what they think about using irradiation to make some foods less likely to poison them. Now Health Canada wants to expand the list to use the process -- in which ionizing radiation kills bacteria and insects -- on ground beef, poultry, prawns, shrimp and mangoes.
Health
Canada is going to the public now because the list will likely represent the
first time that many of the food items will be irradiated in Canada.
Christine Bruhn, director of the Centre for Consumer Science at the University
of California at Davis, was quoted as saying this confusion about whether the
process is safe or dangerous "tells you right away that there is a lot of
misinformation or limited information."
At the dosages
Health Canada is proposing, irradiation kills up to 99.999 per cent of
potentially harmful bacteria like E. coli O157 and salmonella in meat. And
because bacteria help food rot, killing bacteria gives meat a longer shelf life,
although it won't make it last forever.
News
Notes: Meaningful Food Safety Messages: Editorial Opinion---The National Provisioner-(November
2002)---The leaves have changed in the Midwest and I've already encountered snow
on a recent trip to Nebraska and Iowa. Thanksgiving beckons and the holiday
season is also close. But plenty of time remains for the industry to finish old
business and get a head start on new business. There is plenty of old business,
especially on the food-safety front. For one thing, retailers are putting
irradiated meat on their shelves so rapidly these days they are setting a
precedent for the coming year and longer. This time last year only a few
retailers had committed to carrying irradiated meat, but movement this year has
attracted several joiners and contemplators.
On the home front:
•
Price Chopper Supermarket, a New York chain, in October began selling fresh
irradiated ground beef in one- and three-pound packages of 80-percent and
95-percent lean varieties.
•
Clemens Family Markets of Philadelphia also instituted an irradiated product
program in the markets it serves, including Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and
Delaware counties. Its case-ready fresh ground beef is processed with SureBeam
Corp.'s electron-beam technology. The packages are designed for a complete
view of the product through a clear cellophane covering.
•
USDA is considering approving irradiated products for the nation's school-lunch
program. Reportedly the agency will study the issue and may hand down a
favorable decision by the end of the year. Although a comment period and rule
making are expected to follow the USDA decision, it's doubtful the actual
appearance of irradiated products will be in schools this year.
"USDA's
decision to allow schools to purchase and serve irradiated meats as part of the
school-lunch program is another step forward for food safety," comments
Rhona Applebaum, executive vice president of the National Food Processors
Association. "Irradiated foods long have been known to provide strong
food-safety benefits for consumers, and it is highly appropriate that such
irradiated meats be available to schools and our children."
Representing
packers and processors, Patrick Boyle, president and CEO of the American Meat
Institute said: "It's time for USDA to acknowledge the food-safety benefits
of this technology and begin purchasing irradiated ground beef products for the
nation's school children." AMI directors also requested that USDA establish
a pilot program for purchasing irradiated ground beef in the commodity
beef-purchasing program.
The international
front:
•Canadian
officials reportedly are inching closer
to granting approval clearing the way
for the use of irradiation to treat beef and poultry products to prevent
such contamination as the deadly E. coli
bacteria. The Canadian Health Department is preparing regulations, based on
reports, which also indicate that processors would have the choice of
irradiating their products or not — but would have to indicate, what had been
done on the meat's packaging. Regulations may be in place before the end of
the year.
Addendum:
Serious
food-poisoning cases reportedly are increasing in England and Wales with Campylobacter
contributing to 8 percent of hospital admissions for foodbome infections, up
from 55 percent in 1992. Foodbome infection was responsible for an estimated 2
million-plus cases in 1992, including
more
than 21,000 hospital admissions and 924 deaths. In 2000, the cases had dropped
to slightly more than 1 million cases, or 53 percent. Notably, initial
comparisons to U.S. figures
indicate that its rate of food poisonings were
11 times higher than in the United Kingdom. After adjusting for
statistical anomalies and methods of calculating figures, the numbers were
reportedly comparable.
Here's
hoping the New Year brings fewer problems related to food safety. We can all use
a break from the wrath of
pathogens. By Barbara Young
Alert
Sounded on Food Irradiation—(December
13, 2002)-- Guelph Mercury via FS NET
Henry Kock, a local horticulturalist, was cited as telling a traveling Health
Canada panel this week in Guelph that food irradiation is a poor substitute for
appropriate sanitation and good animal husbandry, adding, "Through
irradiation, we may be inadvertently creating even more deadly pathogens,"
noting that reports of bacteria surviving high irradiation levels raise the
possibility of super-strains of irradiation-resistant bacteria reminiscent of
super-germs that have evolved from the overuse of antibiotics.
The story says that Kock was one of four people who registered to make presentations in Guelph to the panel of Health Canada and Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) scientists conducting a 90-day public comment period related to proposed changes to Canadian food and drug regulations.
Colin Broughton, regional director of Health Canada, was cited as stressing that the meeting that irradiation "cannot and will not render food radioactive" and is not a sterilization process. It is being proposed as a tool to reduce foodborne illnesses such as E-coli, he said, and to preserve food by extending shelf life and reducing spoilage.
Labelling would be required if more than 10 per cent of a product is irradiated, but the rules would not apply to food served in restaurants.
Rob Eastman of the CFIA was quoted as saying, "It's up to the public to ask." The story says that in the European Union, only dried aromatic herbs, spices and vegetable seasonings are approved for irradiation while Australia and New Zealand allow irradiation of herbs, spices and herbal teas.
Ron Eustice of Minnesota was cited as telling the panel the technology will become "the fourth pillar of public health" together with chlorination of water, immunization against infectious disease and pasteurization of milk, and that since irradiation of beef was approved in the United States it has been embraced because of public concerns about food safety, adding, "In our country, as you do in yours, we believe in freedom of choice."
Tom
Williams, manager of fresh meat for the A & P grocery chain, was cited as
saying there is already a problem in the food service industry with altered
items not being policed properly, adding, "I'm concerned the irradiation of
products merging into the food service sector will only make
this a greater problem."
U of
G student Alex Ross was cited as questining the ability of federal inspectors to
know when food has received more than the maximum dose of irradiation. Eastman
responded that inspectors will conduct random tests and will be able to detect
overdosing by measuring the presence of the chemical
compounds that are created in the irradiation process.
Jodi Alexander, a student from the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group, was cited as telling the scientists she was concerned that the government deemed losses in thiamin, riboflavin and niacin during the irradiation process as not nutritionally significant, adding, "Isn't a reduction in any nutrients a problem?" and that she is also concerned about disposal of the radioactive byproducts of the process.
Kock was further quoted as saying, "Good science is what was used for the approval process for many hundreds of chemicals which after causing tremendous damage to life were finally forced, by citizen pressure mostly, to be banned," and that he was stunned at the strong presence of industry and government officials at the meeting and the absence of people in Guelph he knows are opposed to food irradiation.
Ann
Clark, a U of G crop scientist and a harsh critic of Health Canada's support for
genetically modified foods, was cited as saying she did not know about
Wednesday's meeting and that the federal agency has a history of going through
"an elaborate ruse" of asking for public comment and then ignoring
the input. Clark was further cited as saying irradiation is the wrong way to
address concerns about food safety, that the focus should be on changing farm
practices such as raising pigs in less crowded pens so they don't get sick,
adding, "It's a lot easier to enable sloppy mismanagement and clean up at
the end with irradiation."
Health Canada placed one-day ads in Saturday's Mercury and the Toronto Star. An ad was also placed in the Ontarion, a campus newspaper. As well, 650 invitations were sent to representatives of industry, government and others in Canada who have expressed an interest in irradiation, including Kock and the Sierra Club of Canada.
Janine Small,
senior Ontario communications officer for Health Canada, confirmed that two
police officers were on hand during the Guelph meeting as a precaution should
things get out of hand. She said media advisories are not being issued prior to
any of the meetings. "We are following the process that's established for
consultation," she said. By
Hilary Stead
Irradiated Meat: To Your Health. E. coli outbreaks kill.
Irradiated meat doesn't. So belly up to the burger bar at stores that sell it:
Wisconsin State Journal-Editorial Opinion (December 4, 2002)---The recent E. coli outbreak, which forced the recall
of 2.8 million pounds of ground beef, sickened 56 people in seven states,
including Wisconsin. That ought to be reason enough to welcome to Wisconsin
supermarket shelves irradiated ground beef, a major advancement in food safety.
Irradiation can do for meat what pasteurization
does for milk: Kill bacteria that cause illness and death.
Several Pick 'n Save supermarkets in Wisconsin
have started test-marketing irradiated fresh ground beef.
Nationwide, restaurants and groceries in
increasing numbers have been introducing irradiated ground beef over the past
two years. But it has been hard to find in Wisconsin supermarkets.
Irradiation has been used for nearly 20 years on products such as wheat
flour, potatoes and spices. But the process was slow to catch on in the meat
industry, in part because of concern that consumers would be affected by
unfounded fears about its safety. Public Citizen, founded by Ralph Nader, has
been among the groups protesting against irradiation with irrational arguments
about the "unknown" threats of the new technology.
The
risks of irradiation are only "unknown" because, after years of
study, scientists haven't found any. Weigh that against the known risks of
contracting bacterial illnesses.
Consider
also that the American Medical Association says irradiation is safe.
For
ground beef, irradiation works like this: The packaged meat is placed on a
conveyor belt, which passes though a beam of high-energy electrons. The beam
scans the meat for a few seconds, disrupting the DNA of bacteria.
Irradiation
is no substitute for proper handling and preparation of food. But it is a boon
to food safety, nonetheless.
This
is Pick 'n Save's second attempt to sell irradiated beef. The grocery chain
pulled irradiated frozen hamburger patties from the shelves after a
test-marketing flopped last year. Let's hope the meat remains available this
time. Wisconsin consumers deserve the safest choice.
Food
Irradiation Education Activities:
The Minnesota Beef Council, in cooperation with
SureBeam Corporation will be assisting with, conducting or participating in the
following irradiation education activities:
Minneapolis, MN; January 11-12, 2003: Minnesota Women’s Expo
Minneapolis, MN; January 23, 2003: MN Nutrition Council Annual Meeting
Bloomington, MN; January 24, 2003: Minnesota Nutrition Council Inc.
Rochester, MN; National Farmers Organization Annual Meeting
Nashville, TN; January 27, 2003: Tennessee Beef Council Food Irradiation Seminar
Nashville, TN; January 29, 2003: American National CattleWomen Annual Convention
Minneapolis, MN; February 23-25, UP Show (Upper Midwest Hospitality Show)
Portland, OR; March 4, 2003: Oregon Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Raleigh, NC; March 19, 2003: North Carolina Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Texarkana, AR; April 5-6: American National CattleWomen Region IV Workshop
Harrisburg, PA; April 23-24, 2003: Central Atlantic States' Association of Food and Drug Officials
Monterey, CA: April 28-29: American National CattleWomen Region VI Workshop
St. Cloud, MN; May 1-2, 2003: Minnesota Dietetic Association Conference
Great Falls, MT; May 2-4: American National CattleWomen Region V Workshop
Chicago, IL; May 5-7, 2003: First World Conference on Food Irradiation
Pierre, SD; June 20-22: American National CattleWomen Region VII Workshop
Green Bay, WI; July 13-15, 2003: National Association of County Agricultural Agents
Jasper, IN; Sept. 23, 2003: Indiana Environmental Health
Association Conference
December 13, 2002
FOOD IRRADIATION UPDATE
Food Irradiation Update is published
by the Minnesota Beef Council
DECEMBER 6, 2002
Food Irradiation Educational Activities
World Irradiation Congress to be held in May 2003 at Chicago: From a Press Release; (December 23, 2002) The World Irradiation Congress is scheduled for May 5 to 7, 2003, at Chicago's McCormick Place. The international event will provide a comprehensive technical and scientific forum to promote the technology and benefits of food irradiation around the globe.
Organized by the National Food Safety & Toxicology Center, the "First World Congress on Food Irradiation: Meeting the Challenge of International Trade" is co-sponsored by the Grocery Manufacturers of America, the Food Marketing Institute, the Institute of Food Technologists and the International Union of Food Science and Technology, with financial support from MDS Nordion, SureBeam Inc., Steris Inc. and the Minnesota Beef Council.
The congress will examine the future of food irradiation in a comprehensive program that includes analysis of the: Global situation and outlook on the use of irradiation as a sanitary and phytosanitary treatment; Major markets and market trends; Technological developments, such as irradiation facilities and quality assurance; Investment opportunities; A visit to a commercial food irradiator; A buyer-seller business conference and technical sessions.
With regulatory approvals pending in food trading nations such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union, trade in irradiated meat, poultry, seafood, fresh fruits, vegetables, spices and dried seasonings should increase significantly near term. Several Asian, Africa and Latin American countries have already strengthened their regulatory infrastructure and are in a position to implement international trade in some irradiated food commodities immediately.
At the same time, it is important to invite potential importers of irradiated food products to meet with the exporters to plan future activities under the guidance of global experts in food irradiation, such as those who will congregate for the First World Congress on Food Irradiation.
Attendees will include growers, food producers and processors, shipper-packers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, importers, exporters, foodservice operators, regulatory authorities involved in sanitary and phytosanitary food treatments, irradiation providers and equipment manufacturers, scientists and representatives of consumer organizations.
The Congress includes an International Trade Conference where attendees can get the latest ideas and benefits from international food irradiation experts to help expand business opportunities and to enter new markets and an Irradiated Food Exposition featuring the top companies in food irradiation and irradiation services, plus irradiated food producers and processors marketing irradiated products.
The keynote speaker on May 5 (Monday) will be Dr. Elsa Murano, USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety, speaking on "Food safety from farm to fork: the role of food irradiation."
Other top speakers include the CEOS of FMI and GMA; the presidents of IFT and the International Union of Food Science and Technology; the director of National Food Safety & Toxicology Center at Michigan State University; and top officials from the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation, the Minnesota Beef Council and such companies as Huisken Meat Co., International Dairy Queen Inc., Food Technology Service Inc. and Hawaii Pride Inc.
Key topics include USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service rule on irradiation phytosanitary treatment, with A. Green, APHIS assistant director; the prospects for trade in irradiated produce from South Africa, fruits from Australia and New Zealand and Brazil, foods from Asia and irradiated dried fruits and nuts from Turkey.
On May 7 (Wednesday), a tour bus will take attendees on a "behind-the-scenes" tour of SureBeam's e-beam facility and the Steris gamma irradiation facility in the Chicago area, followed by a visit a local grocery store to see how irradiated products are being marketed at the retail level.
For
more information and to register, contact:
The National Food Safety & Toxicology Center
Michigan State University
165 Food Safety & Toxicology Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1302
517/432-3100
News
Notes: Meaningful Food Safety Messages: Editorial Opinion---The National Provisioner-(November
2002)---The leaves have changed in the Midwest and I've already encountered snow
on a recent trip to Nebraska and Iowa. Thanksgiving beckons and the holiday
season is also close. But plenty of time remains for the industry to finish old
business and get a head start on new business. There is plenty of old business,
especially on the food-safety front. For one thing, retailers are putting
irradiated meat on their shelves so rapidly these days they are setting a
precedent for the coming year and longer. This time last year only a few
retailers had committed to carrying irradiated meat, but movement this year has
attracted several joiners and contemplators.
On the home front:
•
Price Chopper Supermarket, a New York chain, in October began selling fresh
irradiated ground beef in one- and three-pound packages of 80-percent and
95-percent lean varieties.
•
Clemens Family Markets of Philadelphia also instituted an irradiated product
program in the markets it serves, including Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and
Delaware counties. Its case-ready fresh ground beef is processed with SureBeam
Corp.'s electron-beam technology. The packages are designed for a complete
view of the product through a clear cellophane covering.
•
USDA is considering approving irradiated products for the nation's school-lunch
program. Reportedly the agency will study the issue and may hand down a
favorable decision by the end of the year. Although a comment period and rule
making are expected to follow the USDA decision, it's doubtful the actual
appearance of irradiated products will be in schools this year.
"USDA's
decision to allow schools to purchase and serve irradiated meats as part of the
school-lunch program is another step forward for food safety," comments
Rhona Applebaum, executive vice president of the National Food Processors
Association. "Irradiated foods long have been known to provide strong
food-safety benefits for consumers, and it is highly appropriate that such
irradiated meats be available to schools and our children."
Representing
packers and processors, Patrick Boyle, president and CEO of the American Meat
Institute said: "It's time for USDA to acknowledge the food-safety benefits
of this technology and begin purchasing irradiated ground beef products for the
nation's school children." AMI directors also requested that USDA establish
a pilot program for purchasing irradiated ground beef in the commodity
beef-purchasing program.
The international
front:
•Canadian
officials reportedly are inching closer
to granting approval clearing the way
for the use of irradiation to treat beef and poultry products to prevent
such contamination as the deadly E. coli
bacteria. The Canadian Health Department is preparing regulations, based on
reports, which also indicate that processors would have the choice of
irradiating their products or not — but would have to indicate, what had been
done on the meat's packaging. Regulations may be in place before the end of
the year.
Addendum:
Serious
food-poisoning cases reportedly are increasing in England and Wales with Campylobacter
contributing to 8 percent of hospital admissions for foodbome infections, up
from 55 percent in 1992. Foodbome infection was responsible for an estimated 2
million-plus cases in 1992, including
more
than 21,000 hospital admissions and 924 deaths. In 2000, the cases had dropped
to slightly more than 1 million cases, or 53 percent. Notably, initial
comparisons to U.S. figures
indicate that its rate of food poisonings were
11 times higher than in the United Kingdom. After adjusting for
statistical anomalies and methods of calculating figures, the numbers were
reportedly comparable.
Here's
hoping the New Year brings fewer problems related to food safety. We can all use
a break from the wrath of
pathogens. By Barbara Young
Irradiated Meat: To Your Health. E. coli outbreaks kill.
Irradiated meat doesn't. So belly up to the burger bar at stores that sell it: Wisconsin State Journal-Editorial Opinion (December 4, 2002)---The recent E. coli outbreak, which forced the recall
of 2.8 million pounds of ground beef, sickened 56 people in seven states,
including Wisconsin. That ought to be reason enough to welcome to Wisconsin
supermarket shelves irradiated ground beef, a major advancement in food safety.
Nationwide, restaurants and groceries in
increasing numbers have been introducing irradiated ground beef over the past
two years. But it has been hard to find in Wisconsin supermarkets.
Irradiation has been used for nearly 20 years on products such as wheat
flour, potatoes and spices. But the process was slow to catch on in the meat
industry, in part because of concern that consumers would be affected by
unfounded fears about its safety. Public Citizen, founded by Ralph Nader, has
been among the groups protesting against irradiation with irrational arguments
about the "unknown" threats of the new technology.
The
risks of irradiation are only "unknown" because, after years of
study, scientists haven't found any. Weigh that against the known risks of
contracting bacterial illnesses.
Consider
also that the American Medical Association says irradiation is safe.
For
ground beef, irradiation works like this: The packaged meat is placed on a
conveyor belt, which passes though a beam of high-energy electrons. The beam
scans the meat for a few seconds, disrupting the DNA of bacteria.
Irradiation
is no substitute for proper handling and preparation of food. But it is a boon
to food safety, nonetheless.
This
is Pick 'n Save's second attempt to sell irradiated beef. The grocery chain
pulled irradiated frozen hamburger patties from the shelves after a
test-marketing flopped last year. Let's hope the meat remains available this
time. Wisconsin consumers deserve the safest choice
What
Took You So Long?
-- Meat & Seafood Merchandising-- Editorial Perspective with Kimberlie Clyma--
(November 2002)--I remember at the Annual Meat Conference almost five years ago
when irradiation was just a concept to the retail meat industry. The industry
was wary about the new food safety technology and wasn't sure how it would fit
into daily operations. The biggest concern was consumer acceptance, and most of
the discussion at the Meat Conference seemed to circle around the negative
connotation of the term irradiation, instead of the technology as a whole. Back
then it seemed that irradiation's day would never come.
I
remember AI Kober, then with Clemens Markets, predicted that in order for irradiation
to become more readily accepted in the retail meat industry, one retailer was
going to have to step up to the plate and make the first move to offer
irradiated meat to his customers. He said someone was going to have to be daring
enough to stick his neck out to see how consumers would react. At that time, no
one volunteered to be that retailer.
Now,
it seems as if irradiation's time has finally come. And it seems like Al was
right; one retailer did have to stick his neck out before the rest of the
industry would jump on the bandwagon. Thanks, Wegmans, you did it again.
OK,
the credit shouldn't go solely to Wegmans. Some retailers have been selling
irradiated frozen beef and chicken as far back as the spring and summer of 2000.
A number of retailers in Minnesota have been teaming up with Huiskens Meats for
quite some time, and others in Florida have been partnering with Colorado Boxed
Beef to market irradiated meat products to their consumers. This really helped
to bring irradiation out in the open. However, I see Wegmans' introduction of
irradiated fresh beef last May as the start of the domino effect that we're
witnessing in the industry today.
Last
May Wegmans made the gutsy move to put its name on packages of fresh irradiated
ground beef. In effect, by doing so, Wegmans put its name and reputation on the
line with its customers. Offering irradiated meats as a product choice somewhere
in the meat case is one thing; putting your name on the product is another. By
making this move, Wegmans was saying it supported the technology and considered
the irradiated product to be up to the high-quality standards the chain is known
for. The risk worked. Wegmans has seen consistent demand for the product since
the launch. For more information on the thought process behind Wegmans'
decision, see "One step ahead" on Page 16i of the Food Systems
Insider insert in this issue.
Now
that Wegmans has pried open the irradiation can of worms, a number of retailers
and foodservice companies are announcing plans to introduce irradiated meat.
Packers are coming on board now, too. IBP/Tyson recently announced it would soon
start supplying irradiated product to its customers. Congratulations, but what
took you so long?
Why
did it take this long for members of the food industry to stop thinking of
themselves, the bottom line, and the potential public relations risks before
starting to think about the consumer? The consumer has entrusted the food
industry with the responsibility of food safety. Taking on that responsibility
means providing consumers with information and options. Now that irradiation
has finally gone mainstream, the information and options are out there. It's a
win-win situation for everyone.
So,
next time when the industry is looking for retailers to stick their necks out
for the greater good of the industry and the consumer, let's see more
volunteers.
irradiating
its hamburger patties and bulk ground beef two years ago, shortly after the U.S.
Department of Agriculture approved the process for beef, company, but many
customers welcomed the decision and there was slackening in sales, adding,
"We've received calls and e-mails from customers commending us for doing
it," and noted through the end of October, the company's had sold nearly a
quarter-million
irradiated hamburger patties through its seven retail stores in California.
Nick
Iacopi, manager of the year-old Omaha Steaks store in Elk Grove, was quoted as
saying, "In this store, our biggest challenge is to keep burgers (in
stock)." Omaha steaks does not exactly trumpet that its ground beef is
irradiated -- the labeling is small and on the narrow side of the cartons -- but
it is one
talking point store employee Kim Mazzuola uses when discussing products with
customers, who added, "I've had a lot of people ask about the
hamburger recalls lately. I think once you explain the whole process to them,
they feel a lot safer."
CDC physician Andi L. Shane was cited as saying that people have long suffered from food-borne illness, but the changing nature of the nation's food supply is magnifying the impact, adding, "Anything that can be done to improve food safety, such as irradiation is generally something that could be looked upon as advantageous."
Since
the news of the recalls, just in the past eight weeks or so a dozen or more East
Coast and Midwest supermarket chains have begun offering irradiated meats. By
Reed Fujii
Recent Food-Poisoning Scares Give Boost to Irradiated Meat Products-
Technique
touted as an answer to E. coli; Area
Pick 'n Save stores offer meat treated with bacteria-zapping process--Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel--(November 14, 2002) Fresh ground beef treated with a
bacteria-zapping technology is being test-marketed in several Wisconsin Pick 'n
Save supermarkets. The product, which arrived last week, appears to be
getting a warmer reception than a similar product marketed here before, said a
supermarket spokesman. A year ago, frozen hamburger patties treated with the
same irradiation technology were pulled from Milwaukee store shelves because
consumers weren't buying them.
The
technology is touted as one way to fight dangerous pathogens such as a virulent
strain of E. coli that has sickened dozens of Wisconsin residents in recent
years and led to the death of a 3-year-old South Milwaukee girl two years ago.
An E. coli outbreak in October linked to an Emmpak Foods Inc. Milwaukee
meat-grinding plant sickened 56 people in seven states, including 36 in
Wisconsin, and led to a nationwide recall of 2.8 million pounds of ground beef.
Irradiated
ground beef is passed under a beam of accelerated electricity that kills
bacteria. Advocates of the technology say it does not change the texture, color,
taste or nutritional profile of the meat. Critics say there isn't enough
long-term research to prove that the process isn't harmful.
Irradiation
has been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug
Administration and the World Health Organization.
"Scientists
have debunked all of the activist claims," said Mark Stephenson, spokesman
for SureBeam Corp., which offers the irradiation technology.
Raw
ground beef is one of the most common carriers of E. coli bacteria. Irradiation
is considered one tool to reduce risks but not a substitute for safe food
handling practices. There are three SureBeam facilities in the United States
that irradiate foods shipped by fruit growers and meatpackers; so far, no
meatpackers have the technology on site.
The
new ground beef product is doing "very well" in Milwaukee-area stores,
said Tim Wade, vice president of perishables for Roundy's Inc. retail division.
The Pewaukee-based grocery wholesaler owns and franchises the 10 Pick 'n Save
supermarkets in Wisconsin that began test-marketing the treated beef last week.
Some of those stores also tested the frozen product two years ago.
"We
don't anticipate it'll replace regular ground beef," Wade said of the
irradiated fresh product. "But we had to cancel sampling demonstrations at
several stores last weekend because we had run out of product."
More
samples will be offered at participating stores this weekend to give consumers a
chance to taste the meat once it's cooked, Wade said.
The
93% lean irradiated fresh ground beef sells in one-pound packages. At $2.98,
it's about 20 cents a pound more expensive than the closest comparison, 95% lean
ground round, Wade said.
It's
placed in meat cases beside regular ground beef. Each package has a green symbol
with two leaves in a semicircle and the word SureBeam stamped on top. The
pricing label on the bottom of the package contains information about
irradiation, Wade said.
Other
retailers around the country who have test-marketed the product found that it
sells about 10% to 20% as well as regular ground beef, Wade said, adding:
"Once people understand the process and what it does, it sells."
If
it's just another product on the shelves with no educational material offered to
consumers, it won't sell, Stephenson said. He said the product has done well in
Minnesota, where the state's public health department and beef council voiced
public support for irradiation.
Irradiated
fresh ground beef was rolled out in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states
eight weeks ago and is gradually spreading into markets across the country.
Chicago-area supermarkets are expected to get it within the next week, according
to Stephenson.
Irradiated
fresh ground beef is now available at the following Pick 'n Save stores in
Wisconsin: Pick 'n Save at Clark Square, 1818 W. National Ave., Milwaukee; Pick
'n Save -- Rawson, 7201 S. 76th St., Franklin; the two Pick 'n Saves in
Brookfield, 17630 W. Blue Mound Road and 12735 W. Capitol Drive; Pick 'n Save --
Menomonee Falls, N95-W18273 County Line Road; Pick 'n Save -- Bay View, 150 W.
Holt Ave., Milwaukee; Pick 'n Save in Neenah; Pick 'n Save Mega Food Center in
Janesville; Pick 'n Save in Kenosha; and Pick 'n Save in Sheboygan. Roundy's
plans to roll out the product in other stores after the first of the year, Wade
said. By Karen Herzog
Fresh
Brands, Inc. a
supermarket retailer and grocery wholesaler based in Wisconsin, in December 2002,
began offering fresh irradiated ground beef through
corporate-owned retail, franchised and independent supermarkets. Stores are
located throughout Wisconsin and northern Illinois under the Piggly Wiggly and
Dick's Supermarkets brands. Fresh Brands currently has 74 franchised
Piggly Wiggly supermarkets, 27 corporate-owned Piggly Wiggly and Dick's
Supermarkets and two distribution centers. The company controls nearly $1
billion in retail grocery sales.
Jewel-Osco, a 191-store unit of Boise, Idaho-based Albertson's Inc., started selling
irradiated ground beef at Chicago stores and some other locations on November
13th.
Hannaford
and Shop'n Save Supermarkets based in Scarborough, Maine began
offering case-ready irradiated fresh ground beef in 117 stores in Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, New York and Massachusetts in early November. The irradiated
product is offered in 93% and 85% lean fresh ground beef products in 1-lb.,
case-ready packages.
Pick 'n Save, the retail division of Roundy's Inc., based in Pewaukee, WI, began offering a limited supply of one-pound packs of irradiated fresh ground beef in November. Nine other Pick 'n Save stores are also participating in the test sale. Tim Wade, vice president of perishables for Pick 'n Save's parent, was quoted as saying, "We felt these markets were a good cross section of Wisconsin."
Chronological
List of Restaurants and Retailers Marketing Irradiated Ground Beef:
Huisken Meat Company of Sauk Rapids, MN began marketing frozen irradiated patties in May 2000. From an initial distribution of 84 stores in the Twin Cities, distribution has grown to thousands of stores in 30+ states. Huisken reported sales growth of 35 percent in 2001 compared to 2000 and a 25 percent increase through June 2002. Huisken Meat Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of JNR Holding Company, which also owns Rochester Meat Company in Rochester, MN and Whiteford Food Products, Inc. at Versailles, OH. Huiskens may be contacted at (320) 259-0305.
SuperValu
based in Eden Prairie, MN was one of the first supermarket chains in the US to
offer irradiated ground beef when they introduced Huisken BeSure irradiated
patties in the Twin Cities on May 16, 2000. SuperValu is one of the largest
companies in the United States grocery channel. With annual revenues in excess
of $20 billion, Supervalu holds leading market share positions with its 1,260
retail grocery locations, including licensed Save-A-Lot locations. In addition,
the company provides distribution and related logistics support services to
approximately 4,280 grocery retail outlets.
Rainbow
Foods, a
Fleming Company based in Minneapolis, with 42 stores in Minnesota and 2 in
Wisconsin, shared the honor of being first to offer Huisken BeSure irradiated
patties in the Twin Cities area. Rainbow has offered Huisken BeSure irradiated
patties (90/10 and regular ground beef) since May 16, 2000. Rainbow also markets
SureBeam processed papaya.
Cub Foods based in Stillwater, MN, was one of the first retailers in the US to offer irradiated ground beef when they introduced Huisken BeSure irradiated patties in the Twin Cities on May 16, 2000. Cub Foods has stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Colorado.
Schwan's
based in Marshall, MN, began to sell irradiated frozen patties nationwide
through home delivery in late May 2000. All fresh/frozen ground beef at
Schwan’s is irradiated. Schwan’s markets irradiated ground chuck and quarter
pound patties in 3 pound packages. For delivery of Schwan’s irradiated burgers
to your doorstep phone; 1.888. Schwans or log on to www.schwans.com.
Nash Finch based in Minneapolis, MN began marketing Huisken BeSure irradiated beef patties during the summer of 2000. Nash Finch Company is one of the leading food retail and distribution companies in the United States, with over $4.1 billion in annual revenues. Nash Finch owns and operates a base of 112 retail stores, principally supermarkets under the AVANZA, Buy·n·Save, Econofoods and Sun Mart trade names. In addition to its retail operations, Nash Finch Company's food distribution business serves independent retailers and military commissaries in 28 states, the District of Columbia and Europe.
Omaha Steaks
has marketed irradiated frozen patties since the summer of 2000. All ground beef
from Omaha Steaks is SureBeam processed. To place an order for Omaha Steaks’
irradiated burgers phone 1.800.228.9872 or by logging on at www.omahasteaks.com.
W.W.
Johnson, a
Minneapolis-based private label foodservice company established in 1946, began
to offer SureBeam
processed fresh
irradiated ground beef in patties and 10 pound rolls in May 2001. W.W. Johnson
private labels fresh ground beef for national and regional foodservice
distributors and chains including Sysco, US Foodservice, Rhinehart, Upper Lakes
Foods and Fraboni's. Sales of irradiated product through W.W. Johnson are coast
to coast and expanding steadily. About 10 percent of W.W. Johnson’s production
is irradiated. Contact W.W. Johnson at 1.612.721.6792.
Sysco: Currently 28 Sysco Foodservice Distribution
Centers are offering SureBeam processed ground beef to various foodservice
establishments. Some
of the areas with irradiated ground beef are Portland, ME; Kent, WA; Billings,
MT; Milwaukee, WI, Cleveland and Cincinnati, OH.
Winn Dixie based in Jacksonville, Florida operates
1060 stores in the Southeast and began marketing Huisken BeSure
irradiated patties in late 2001 and early 2002.
Kroger
began marketing Excel’s “Fairfield Farms” fresh ground beef at about a
dozen stores in February 2002 in the Peoria, Illinois area.
Schnuck's
stores in Illinois and Missouri began marketing Excel’s “Fairfield Farms”
fresh ground beef in February 2002.
Dairy Queen
based in Edina, MN began a test at two stores (Hutchinson and Spicer, MN) in
February 2002, and is now offering SureBeam processed irradiated
patties at over 80 Minnesota stores following a very successful expansion in
Central Minnesota (May) and the Twin Cities area (July/August). The number of
Minnesota Dairy Queens offering SureBeam processed ground beef from Birchwood
Foods (Kenosha Beef) is steadily expanding. Dairy Queen’s
impressive point of sale materials including tray liners, table tents and
signage are a model for all restaurants to follow.
Wegmans Food Markets, based in Rochester, N.Y. in May 2002,
became the first supermarket chain in the nation to introduce irradiated fresh
ground beef under its own private-label brand—Wegmans Brand Irradiated Fresh Ground
Beef. The new line, produced at Excel Corp.'s Dodge City, Kan. plant, is
available in 90/10 (90 percent lean/10 percent fat) and 80/20 packages, and is
selling for 10 to 30 cents more a pound than ordinary fresh ground beef. Wegmans
currently operates 64 stores in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and
irradiated product is now being sold at all of its stores, Wegmans is no
newcomer in offering irradiated products. In May 2001, it introduced Fairview
Farms irradiated frozen ground beef patties, and its also carries a few
irradiated produce items in select stores.
Lowes
Foods,
based in Winston-Salem, N.C. began offering SureBeam processed irradiated fresh,
ground beef to consumers at 48 of its 105 stores in early September 2002.
Products are being offered in 1-pound packages of 93-percent lean ground beef
and in 93-percent lean ground-beef patties.
D'Agostino Supermarkets in September, began offering
SureBeam processed irradiated fresh ground beef in several case-ready product
formats. This chain operates 23 stores in New York City and suburban Westchester
County.
Pathmark Supermarkets, one of the top 15 supermarket
retailers in the countries with stores in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania,
announced it would sell SureBeam processed irradiated fresh ground beef in
several case-ready offerings early in October.
Farm
Fresh Supermarkets
of Hampton Roads, Virginia in October became the first food retailer in that
area to offer case-ready fresh ground beef processed with SureBeam Corp.'s
electron-beam food irradiation technology. A SuperValu Company, Farm
Fresh has 37 stores located throughout Hampton Roads.
Farm Fresh is selling its irradiated, fresh ground beef in five packages--1 and
3-pound packages in 80-percent and 93-percent lean, as well as 1-pound packages
in 85-percent lean.
Champps: Two Milwaukee area Champps began serving SureBeam processed
irradiated ground beef in September 2002.
Hy-Vee Supermarkets began selling SureBeam processed irradiated fresh ground beef from IBP on October 14, 2002 in five packages: 85- and 90-percent lean tray packs, 85- and 90-percent lean rolls and 93-percent lean patties. Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee is one of the nation's top 15 supermarket retailers and operates 188 stores in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota.
Clemens
Family Markets
of Philadelphia, with 19 stores in Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware
Counties in Pennsylvania, began to offer SureBeam-processed case-ready fresh
ground beef in late October. Clemens
is selling SureBeam processed fresh ground beef in one-pound case-ready packages
in 85-percent, 90-percent and 93-percent lean. Their case-ready packages
provide the customer a complete view of the product through a clear cellophane
covering. Clemens is a family-owned, regional supermarket business currently
celebrating their 63rd year
in business.
Giant Foods of Landover, MD became the first food retailer in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., to offer irradiated fresh ground beef on November 5, 2002. Giant stores are selling two SureBeam-labeled irradiated ground beef products: 93 percent lean and 85 percent lean.
Giant Food, a member of the Ahold USA group, operates
189 supermarkets in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and the District of
Columbia and employs more than 27,000 associates.
Publix supermarkets will begin selling New Generation brand irradiated frozen ground beef patties, boneless chicken breasts and chicken tenders from Colorado Boxed Beef Company in early 2003. The Lakeland, Fla.-based chain will also consider offering fresh irradiated products in the future. New Generation-brand products are processed by Food Technology Service Inc., a Mulberry, Fla.-based, gamma-source irradiation facility. Publix, with 711 stores in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and in Tennessee later this year, is owned by its more than 119,000 employees and posted 2001 sales of $15.3 billion.
Food
Irradiation Education Activities:
The Minnesota Beef Council, in cooperation with
SureBeam Corporation will be assisting with, conducting or participating in the
following irradiation education activities:
Billings, MT; December 13, 2002: Montana Stockgrower’s
Annual Convention
Madison, WI; January TBD, 2003: Wisconsin Beef Council Food Irradiation Seminar
Bloomington, MN; January 24, 2003: Minnesota Nutrition Council Inc.
Nashville, TN; January 27, 2003: Tennessee Beef Council Food Irradiation Seminar
Nashville, TN; January 29, 2003: American National CattleWomen Annual Convention
Portland, OR; March 4, 2003: Oregon Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Raleigh, NC; March 19, 2003: North Carolina Beef Council Irradiation Workshop
Texarkana, AR; April 5-6: American National CattleWomen Region IV Workshop
Harrisburg, PA; April 23-24, 2003: Central Atlantic States' Association of Food and Drug Officials
Monterey, CA: April 28-29: American National CattleWomen Region VI Workshop
St. Cloud, MN; May 1-2, 2003: Minnesota Dietetic Association Conference
Great Falls, MT; May 2-4: American National CattleWomen Region V Workshop
Chicago, IL; May 5-7, 2003: First World Conference on Food Irradiation
Pierre, SD; June 20-22: American National CattleWomen Region VII Workshop
Green Bay, WI; July 13-15, 2003: National Association of County Agricultural Agents
Jasper, IN; Sept. 23, 2003: Indiana Environmental Health Association Conference
December 7, 2002
FOOD IRRADIATION UPDATE
DECEMBER 6, 2002
Food Irradiation Update is published by the Minnesota Beef Council
Recent Food-Poisoning Scares Give Boost to Irradiated Meat Products:
Technique
touted as an answer to E. coli; Pick 'n Save stores offer meat treated with
Irradiation
Food Irradiation Education Activities
Input on Irradiation Invited-- Lean Trimmings (November 25, 2002)--USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service announced Friday that it is seeking input about the use of approved food safety technologies for commodity purchase programs.