Food Irradiation – Are The Benefits Worth The Risk?
by Larry Saunders

If you listen to the proponents of irradiated food, it makes you wonder why anyone would be opposed to zapping food with enough gamma rays to kill a bystander several times over. The elimination of food borne pathogens, especially after the recent e-Coli scare, sure sounds promising. It certainly would be desirable if it’s true that you can extend the shelf life of food products with a totally safe technology that does not damage the quality of food. It would be nice to be able to just accept the rosy information about food irradiation as presented by our government institutions and several medical associations. However, when you look at all the information and view the larger picture that food irradiation presents, one cannot help but wonder if the benefits of irradiated food are worth the risks involved.

Everyone seems to agree that food irradiation does not make food radioactive. Irradiation involves passing food through an irradiation field, but the food never touches a radioactive substance and the energy used is not strong enough to cause food to become radioactive. However, according to some credentialed scientists, there are changes that occur in irradiated food.

Dr. Donald Louria of the New Jersey Medical School noted in the January 27, 1992 issue of Newsweek that when gamma rays, emitted by radioactive cobalt-60, zap food, they destroy some nutrients, especially vitamins A, C, E, and certain B’s. In literature published by the United States Department of Agriculture, this issue is downplayed by the observation that the nutrient losses in irradiated food are less than, or about the same as cooking or freezing. In the same article published by the USDA, it notes that most harmful bacteria are destroyed, but that surviving bacteria could start to multiply if the food was mishandled. For this reason, consumers must properly refrigerate and cook the food to make sure that potentially harmful organisms do not present a problem. If you have nutrient loss when food is irradiated, and then you have more nutrient loss when you cook your food, it stands to reason that you would have twice the nutrient loss with irradiated food. Nutrient loss is an important issue, but for some scientists, the bigger concern is on what the food gains.

According to Richard Piccioni, a biochemist speaking on behalf of Food & Water, Inc., an advocacy group formed in 1986 to fight food irradiation, "Gamma rays can break down every chemical bond (in a food’s proteins, fats and carbohydrates) with gusto. The liberated molecules are free to recombine with new mates. "So the number of chemical outcomes is more or less astronomical" says Piccioni. "No one pretends to understand what happens." Most of the newly formed compounds have not been identified, let alone tested for toxicity, so they may or may not be dangerous. But other molecules found in zapped food are not exactly healthy. They include carcinogenic formaldehyde (irradiated starch) and benzene (irradiated meat), mutagenic peroxides (irradiated plant tissue) and formic acid (irradiated sucrose). George Pauli of the US Food and Drug Administration estimates that all such "radiolytic products" now total now more than 30 parts per million in irradiated food which such a small quantity that it is an insignificant issue. Piccioni agrees that the amounts of known compounds may be to small to worry about. "My concern," he says, "is that we do not know the full list of what’s produced. If you don’t know that, how can you say the cancer risk is less than the level of concern?"

The FDA does not seem to be concerned. The agency has approved irradiation for poultry in 1990, for fruits and vegetables in 1986, pork in 1985, spices in 1983, white potatoes in 1965 and wheat in 1963. In 1980, the agency concluded that the amounts of radiolytic products likely to be produced by irradiating food with 100,000 rads (about 10 million chest X-rays worth) was so small that the food would not be subject to standard toxicity testing. The FDA has published that it reviewed hundreds of studies to determine the safety or irradiated food. According to the same Newsweek article mentioned earlier, the agency reviewed 441 existing studies and eliminated all but five for poor quality. Two of the five used radiation does lower than FDA approved. A third found that animals fed the irradiated food lost weight and miscarried, probably due to the destruction of vitamin E in the food.

If you decide you want to stay away from irradiated food, it might be more difficult than you would think. It is required by law that all whole, irradiated food in the United States must be labeled with a "radura", the benign looking international symbol for irradiation, and the words "treated by irradiation" or "treated with radiation". There is requirement to label for prepared or packaged foods with irradiated ingredients, or for food sold in restaurants or schools.

Increasing the number of irradiation facilities to process food is another issue that introduces the possibilities of radioactive leaks that could be a potential threat to workers at the irradiation plants and the general public. There could be an accident at an irradiation plant that could expose the workers and neighbors of the plant to the cancer causing and possibly lethal rays. The source of radiation will have to be transported around the county to supply the irradiation plants, which also increases the possibility of additional accidents.

In the final analysis, who benefits from irradiated food? The consumer still has to properly handle food and cook thoroughly to make sure harmful organisms do not pose a problem. The food producers and stores selling irradiated food might be able to reduce losses due to the extended shelf life of irradiated food. But the food producers and stores selling this type of processed foods might be the losers if an informed public is aware of the issues surrounding food irradiation and they choose to not purchase food treated in such a manner.

Larry Saunders is an Herbalist and Certified Natural Health Professional in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he does private consultations, telephone consultations, and classes on natural healing. He can be reached at Sunrise Herb Shoppe, a unique holistic resource center for cutting edge natural health products and books. For information call 1-804-984-2665, or visit our web site at www.sunherb.com, or e-mail at sunherb@sunherb.com.