The US meat industry can now irradiate refrigerated or frozen raw beef,
pork, lamb, as well as meat products to prevent disease rather than solving
the problem by instituting more sanitary packing and handling conditions,
according to a December 14, 1999 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
announcement. USDA also weakened its existing regulations for poultry,
including no longer requiring that poultry be irradiated in the package in
which it is sold. This means that irradiated poultry products can be used
as ingredients in further processed products, such as TV dinners.
Unfortunately, rather than cleaning up the filthy conditions at large,
corporate farms and industrial slaughterhouses, the meat industry and their
allies in the U.S. government are promoting food irradiation as a way to
prevent food-borne illness. Food irradiation will not solve the problems
associated with the unsanitary conditions at huge factory sized farms from
which feces-covered animals are transported to industrialized-size
slaughtering facilities. Workers at these facilities are required to
speed-up work, for instance, "processing" as many as 300 cows an hour, and
too few USDA inspectors are on hand to insure that procedures to prevent
contamination are followed.
USDA's Retail Labeling Requirements for Meat
While the new USDA rule does include a labeling requirement (a radura) on
irradiated meat and poultry products sold at retail, meat served in
facilities like restaurants, hospitals or school cafeterias does not have
to be labeled. This means that consumer's will have no way of insuring
they the meat they eat in these establishments is not irradiated. Consumers
of fast food burgers should be especially concerned, since hamburger
patties are a prime candidate for irradiation.
Moreover, if the FDA does not continue to require labeling, the USDA is
unlikely to require labeling. USDA is "harmonizing" all of their food
regulations with the FDA. Requirements are as follows:
1) Packaged meat products irradiated in their entirety must bear the
international radura symbol. Unfortunately, the symbol, which contains
simple petals in a broken circle is benevolent looking and its meaning is
not widely recognized. Additionally, products must either include the word
"irradiated" as part of the product name or must bear a statement such as
"Treated with radiation" or "Treated by irradiation." The radura must be
placed in conjunction with the required statement, if the statement is
used. The statement is not required to be more prominent than the
declaration of ingredients and it can be anywhere on the package.
2) Unpackaged meat products irradiated in their entirety are required to
have the radura symbol and a statement "prominently and conspicuously"
displayed to purchasers either through labeling on a bulk container or
"some other appropriate device." The agency does not define what this
"other appropriate device" could be.
3) USDA is also allowing labeling statements and claims regarding the
"beneficial effects" and the purpose of irradiation.
4) Multi-ingredient products, which include an irradiated meat product,
must only reflect its inclusion in the ingredient statement on the finished
product's label.
5) USDA eliminated two labeling requirements for poultry. The requirements
that "letters used for the qualifying statement shall be no less than
one-third the size of the largest letter in the product name" and second,
that the radura logo on irradiated poultry product labels be colored green
have been eliminated.
USDA Weakens Food Additive Law
USDA also ended their requirement for the use of food additives
(irradiation is considered an additive). In the future, the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) will be the sole agency regulating food additives.
USDA says in its materials about the rule that they will "discuss" with FDA
their concerns about additives used in meat and poultry. The new rule is
the latest in a series of so-called "reforms," which make it easier for the
food industry to get regulatory approval, but decrease the protections for
consumers. The new rule will shorten the approval process for additives
from two to five years.
USDA Approves Meat Irradiation Without Proof of its Safety
The legalization of food irradiation is based on a house of cards. No
studies have been done to show that a long-term diet of irradiated foods is
safe. In legalizing the irradiation of raw meat, the USDA relied upon the
FDA's determination that food irradiation is safe. Unfortunately, the FDA
based their legalization of food irradiation on shaky scientific evidence.
A special task force of the FDA reviewed a large body of scientific
literature on the toxicological testing of irradiated food, however, they
based their approval of food irradiation on only five studies. The FDA task
force reviewed over 2000 studies, over four hundred of which met a high
enough standard that they could potentially have been reviewed Obviously,
since the FDA used such a small sample, the potential for bias is great.
Furthermore, because they were unable to provide definitive evidence of the
safety of irradiated food, the FDA eventually based their legalization of
food irradiation on a theoretical model about how many new chemicals
(potential carcinogens) are formed in the food products by irradiation.
Take Action Now!
Write or call your member of Congress and voice your concerns about food
irradiation!
If you need information about your elected representative, call Public
Citizen at 202-546-4996 or email us at the web site below. Ask your
Representatives and Senators to write to Health and Human Services
Secretary, Donna Shalala, about the FDA potentially removing the
requirement that irradiated foods be labeled.
The Honorable Donna Shalala, US Dept. of Health and Human Services, 200
Independence Ave., SW. Washington, DC 20201 (For more info:
www.citizen/cmep)
Wenonah Hauter
Director
Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project
202-454-5150
Visit our Web Site: www.citizen.org/cmep
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