Irradiated Spinach - What’s the Problem?
But here’s the biggest problem with irradiation as a measure to combat food-borne illness. Right now, there are only two facilities in the country that do it. One is in
Essentially this is a downstream “solution” to a massive upstream problem. The spinach that was recalled last year was grown using water contaminated by cow feces. This is a crisis of our production methods. Our food system, as it currently operates, is a beastly mess. Part of the reason it was so difficult to pinpoint the source of tainted spinach is because it came into a processing facility, was mixed with greens from countless other sources, and went into air-locked bags, bound for markets all over the country.
Irradiating food at the end of the production line means that growing, cleaning, shipping, and packaging methods will have less oversight and be more prone to lax and dirty practices. Abandoning our responsibility to scrutinize the sources of our food is unbelievably foolish. And it does nothing to encourage the kind of changes in growing practice that would ensure a sustainable, healthy foodstream.
So if the red herring of “radioactive” spinach doesn’t strike fear into your heart, be assured that a food system that allows and encourages a bacterial mess, only to ineffectively and inefficiently clean it up later on, should.
Late last month, the FDA approved a new regulation that allows for the irradiation of fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce. This measure follows in the wake of the e-coli outbreaks traced to contaminated spinach, which killed three people and sickened 205 more in 2006. For big food industry supporters, it’s seen as [...]
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Late last month, the FDA approved a new regulation that allows for the irradiation of fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce. This measure follows in the wake of the e-coli outbreaks traced to contaminated spinach, which killed three people and sickened 205 more in 2006. For big food industry supporters, it’s seen as a new tool in the arsenal to keep the nation’s food supply safe. For others the words “irradiation” and “food” should never be in the same sentence and stir up disturbing images of radioactive salads and a food system run seriously off the rails.
How can you know if your food has been irradiated? For the time being, all treated food must bear the logo you see at the top of this post. (Doesn’t it look benignly progressive?) The package must also state clearly that the product has been irradiated or “treated with radiation”. So far, not a whole lot of our food supply has been irradiated or borne these labels. The public’s response has been tepid at best. But food industry lobbyists are pressing to have the labels removed – so the consumer wouldn’t know what kind of treatment her food had been subject to before she drops it in her grocery cart.
Attempting again, not to be too much of an alarmist, it is important to note that the new regulation allows these foods to be irradiated, it doesn’t require that they be. So, for the time being, the spinach and lettuce you buy in a grocery store, unless it bears the irradiation logo, is probably not treated. But what is this process all about? Will your spinach glow in the dark, or, worse yet, cause cancer? From the website of Food & Water Watch, a consumer advocacy group keeping an eye on our food system:
“Irradiation exposes food to a high dose of ionizing radiation, which comes from one of three sources: electron beam (electricity), cobalt 60 (nuclear waste byproduct), or cesium 137 (also a nuclear waste byproduct). It is intended to kill bacteria such as E.coli or Salmonella. It also extends shelf-life. However, studies have shown it depletes the nutritional content of food as well as leaving behind chemical byproducts in the food
Irradiation facilities use gamma rays, x-rays, or electron beams to irradiate food.”
It must be noted that irradiation does not leave food radioactive. But should this really be our best standard of excellence? Nutritionally depleted, chemically altered, but not radioactive?
The flavor and texture can be altered by radiation, and some of foods’ essential nutrients destroyed. For instance, the kind of dose that would knock the bacteria out of eggs or orange juice reduces vitamin A and beta carotene by 80%, respectively.
Perhaps this is a price we’re willing to pay for food safety and a cessation of deadly outbreaks. Unfortunately, treating foods with radiation in order to eradicate deadly bacteria is, on the whole, ineffective. Irradiation of food kills a majority of the bacteria, but not nearly all – and it really only takes one tiny bacterium to cause illness.
But here’s the biggest problem with irradiation as a measure to combat food-borne illness. Right now, there are only two facilities in the country that do it. One is in
Essentially this is a downstream “solution” to a massive upstream problem. The spinach that was recalled last year was grown using water contaminated by cow feces. This is a crisis of our production methods. Our food system, as it currently operates, is a beastly mess. Part of the reason it was so difficult to pinpoint the source of tainted spinach is because it came into a processing facility, was mixed with greens from countless other sources, and went into air-locked bags, bound for markets all over the country.
Irradiating food at the end of the production line means that growing, cleaning, shipping, and packaging methods will have less oversight and be more prone to lax and dirty practices. Abandoning our responsibility to scrutinize the sources of our food is unbelievably foolish. And it does nothing to encourage the kind of changes in growing practice that would ensure a sustainable, healthy foodstream.
So if the red herring of “radioactive” spinach doesn’t strike fear into your heart, be assured that a food system that allows and encourages a bacterial mess, only to ineffectively and inefficiently clean it up later on, should.
