Throughout much of this country and a few other industrialised nations, irradiating foods has slowly evolved to become a dominant part of their food processing. From the beginning, much debate has dominated both the political arena as well as the public with consumer reaction against irradiation at about a 3 to 1 ratio. The U.S. governments control arm, i.e. the FDA would loosely call the newly devised process "cold pasteurization", so as not to alarm the public, since the level of radiation used on some of the foods could be as high as...10's of millions of your normal x-rays.
The theme for the inception of the program was born in 1953 from the post world war II Atoms For Peace Program( the "peaceful atom" ), the abridged motto being to consecrate the atoms use to the life of man rather than to his death. Somehow the programs evolution took on a slightly different track through the years since then. Is the program true to its original intent ? With one large meat processing company recently(2000) suffering from growing consumer lawsuits due to E-Coli sickness from consumption of contaminated meats, irradiation could become a life saver, hopefully helping to prevent future lawsuits and possibly crippling the industry.
Food Labeling Controversy Issues...
From its inception, irradiation has caused much negative feelings among consumers, consumer groups and organic food advocates. In the process of finalising the methods of displaying irradiated food labeling, there has been much debate on the possible use of mislabeling irradiated products as "pasteurized. "U.S. consumers are supposed to be protected by the " right to truthful and accurate labeling " The problem then becomes amplified since now there could pose issues of food export to european countries . In Europe, all foods , without exception intended for consumers must be labeled as either "irradiated" or "treated with ionizing radiation." In the U.S., present regulations only require that irradiated foods sold in stores carry a label showing an "irradiated food symbol"... not to scare the consumer.
Irradiation and the Consumer Future
WHO and the FDA seem to think that irradiation is the weapon they hope will help curb our age old dilemma of food-borne diseases and that after a 35-year study by WHO has found a constantly increasing incidence from Listeria and Campylobacter organisms, however, both the FDA an WHO emphasize that irradiation alone will not totally prevent food-borne illness during processing, but will still require careful handling, storage and proper cooking of foods.
At the moment it certainly looks as though the world is still highly divided on the final... across the board adoption of irradiation throughout the world. Some countries are still totally against it, but whatever happens, it seems that the home garden, or your own small animal farm needed to sustain you and your family is probably the only way to be almost totally independent of its possible effects on the rest of the world.
