Irradiated Foods Showing Up in Alabama Retail Stores

More Alabama Retail Outlets Carrying Irradiated Foods

Auburn, March 12, 2003 -- More and more retail grocery stores throughout Alabama are carrying irradiated products. And as far as one food safety expert is concerned, "it's about time."

During her career as an Alabama Cooperative Extension System food
scientist and Auburn University researcher, Dr. Jean Weese has tested hundreds of irradiated food products. She's also eaten her share of "irradiated hamburgers, lettuce, apples, tomatoes, strawberries — you name it."

(Above: The image, made with a laser microscope, shows potentially deadly E.coli O157:H7 bacteria growing along the roots of a lettuce plant. Dr. Jean Weese, Alabama Cooperative Extension System food scientist, says irradiation has proven to be the only effective method for eradicating these bacteria entirely in produce.)

And she still isn't glowing. Indeed, based on her own experience and
research, she believes it is, bar none, the safest technology on the
market for eradicating potentially harmful food pathogens — far better
than antiseptic solutions used in some processing plants.

"It's very hard killing bacteria on some produce, such as cantaloupe,
with antiseptic solutions because the outer skin is just too tough,"
Weese says. "We've even done studies in which we've washed and dunked strawberries in solutions that contain 200 parts per billion of
chlorine, which is a very strong antiseptic. But it doesn't do a
thing."

It's a different story with irradiation.

"The biggest advantage of irradiation is that it kills bacteria throughout the product — not just on its exterior," Weese says.

Ridding produce completely of harmful bacteria is a greater concern than ever among retail food store managers, especially now that studies have shown that a potentially deadly pathogen, E.coli O157:H7, usually associated with ground beef, can survive not only on the outside but even inside of produce — all the way from the roots to the leaves.

It is a fact borne out by Weese's own research in which hydroponically grown plants were irrigated with water intentionally contaminated with harmful E.coli bacteria.

"Using laser microscopes, we could watch the E.coli growing steadily
throughout the plant, Weese recalls. "So in cases where produce has
been grown in manure or irrigated with water that has been used by
cattle or even by wild game animals such as deer, there is the real
possibility it may harbor E.coli bacteria."

"What this means is that just washing a plant thoroughly before eating it will not get rid of the bacteria."

It is a fact not lost on the nation's food processors — which partly
accounts for why more irradiated products are turning up in grocery stores, she says.

Bruno's, one of Alabama's largest retail store chains, recently began
offering two irradiated ground beef products — a decision driven solely by a desire to address mounting consumer concerns about the safety of ground beef products, says one company spokesperson.

"Food safety is our No. 1 one concern and at the very forefront of
consumer concerns," says Donald Long, director of advertising and public relations. "So for us, the decision to carry irradiated beef was just a matter of food safety."

The products are clearly labeled as irradiated products, he adds.

Winn-Dixie also is selling irradiated frozen ground beef paddies
processed by Huisken Meats, a Sauk Rapids, Minnesota-based company, says Joanne Gage, senior director for Winn Dixie's Consumer Marketing Service.

One added advantage associated with irradiation is that killing all of
the microorganisms in the product also increases shelf life — a huge
benefit to wholesale and retail operators who typically lose a third of
produce in the course of shipping, due to spoilage and handling.

It has been shown to double the shelf life of strawberries, one of the
products most susceptible to spoilage.

Weese describes irradiation, which uses gamma radiation to kill
microorganisms, as "a very simple process."

Products are taken into a room and exposed only a short time to Cobalt 60.

"What remains after treatment," Weese says, "is a product that looks, tastes and feels the same way it did before it was treated but that is completely free of any potentially harmful bacteria."

Bruno's and Winn-Dixie, however, employ a different type of irradiation that uses an electric beam and that is similar to microwave cooking.

Though irradiation already is used widely in Europe, it has taken years to garner a receptive audience among Americans. But that appears to be changing, Weese says.

"When people see these products, it doesn't take very long for them to get used to it," she stresses. "But this isn't surprising, because when one has to choose between an irradiated product, such as strawberries, that looks freshly picked versus nonirradiated strawberries that already have begun to mold, chances are they're going to pick the irradiated berries.

Indeed, this has been borne out in Weese's own research.

"We've even put strawberries in grocery stories under a readily visible
sign, indicating that they have been treated with irradiation," Weese
says. "In one these studies, it wasn't an hour before they were all
sold out."

(Source: Dr. Jean Weese, Extension Food Scientist, 334-844-3269)

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