The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ruled that food companies can petition the agency to use alternative language such as “cold pasteurization” to the word “irradiation” on labels of foods treated with the disease-killing process.
Irradiation, which exposes food to low doses of electrons or gamma rays to destroy deadly microorganisms, has been on something of a roll of late, with a number of retailers deciding to sell irradiated beef as a way of insuring food safety to their customers.
However, historically retailers have been reticent about irradiation because of worries about the name and its impact on the consumer. Some groups have expressed concern that radiation in food products could have negative effects on consumers.
Irradiation, which exposes food to low doses of electrons or gamma rays to destroy deadly microorganisms, has been on something of a roll of late, with a number of retailers deciding to sell irradiated beef as a way of insuring food safety to their customers.
However, historically retailers have been reticent about irradiation because of worries about the name and its impact on the consumer. Some groups have expressed concern that radiation in food products could have negative effects on consumers.
- KC's View:
-
Considering the bad run of luck that the industry has lad lately in terms of meat safety issues, anything that gets irradiation used more frequently and effectively sounds like a good idea to us.
We assume that by allowing such petitions, the FDA is pretty much saying that it will rubber-stamp any reasonable request.
