FDA to allow food producers to irradiate spinach, lettuce

[speech]

The Food and Drug Administration has approved use of irradiation on spinach and lettuce to kill dangerous bacteria, but companies may have a tough time selling the idea to consumers.

The FDA's decision, effective today, adds iceberg lettuce and spinach to the short but growing list of foods approved for irradiation, including meat, poultry and some shellfish.

While a handful of companies have succeeded in selling irradiated ground beef since it hit the market in 2000, the idea has largely flopped. "Mom wouldn't buy it," says Craig Wilson, food-safety chief for Costco.

Like pasteurization of milk and pressure cooking of canned foods, treating food with ionizing radiation can kill bacteria such as E. coli. NASA gives irradiated food to astronauts, and the technology, which kills bacteria by altering its DNA, was first used in the U.S. in 1964 to extend the shelf life of white potatoes.

Based on available data, the FDA said Thursday that irradiation done correctly and at approved levels would reduce or eliminate bacteria without altering the nutritional value of the greens or harming consumers.

Opponents say more testing is needed and that the FDA could better enhance food safety by policing foodmakers more. The consumer group Food & Water Watch called irradiation an "impractical, ineffective and very expensive gimmick" that may ruin flavor, texture and nutritional value.

The FDA's ruling resulted from a petition filed in 2000 by a food-manufacturing association asking the FDA to approve irradiation for a broad array of foods. In 2007, the petition was amended so that the leafy greens could be ruled on first.
http://waronyou.com/forums/index.php?topic=765.msg2069;topicseen#new

[youngbuck]

The FDA, and it's board of former big-pharma lobbyists and CEOs needs to be abolished.

[madengr]

How about letting the free market decide. As long as it's labeled truthfully then who cares. I'd buy it.

[Truth Warrior]

That should make it easier to find in the dark. :D

[Johnnybags]

hand held radiation detection device, 3 easy payments of 24.99 + handling. I finally beat those TV guys at something, fits on a keychain and also is good in case of AlQueada or Iran launching ICBM's. Popeye would love irradiated spinach.

[Dr.3D]

Irradiated food doesn't glow in the dark nor have any radiation left in it from the process.
As far as I am concerned, it would be nice to be able to buy some meat that is wrapped in plastic and irradiated and could be kept out of the refrigerator for months without it spoiling.

[Truth Warrior]

Irradiated food doesn't glow in the dark nor have any radiation left in it from the process.
As far as I am concerned, it would be nice to be able to buy some meat that is wrapped in plastic and irradiated and could be kept out of the refrigerator for months without it spoiling. I know. :rolleyes: Just making a joke. ;)

:D

[Kade]

How about letting the free market decide. As long as it's labeled truthfully then who cares. I'd buy it.

Who is going to force them to label it?

[Dr.3D]

Well, my dog treats are labeled with a little smiley face that says irradiated.
If they are doing it for such things as doggy treats, then I would suspect they would also do it for items to be consumed by humans.

[Truth Warrior]

How are the dog treats? :D

[Dr.3D]

How are the dog treats? :D

The dogs think they are great. They would eat them all at once if I let them.

[Kade]

Well, my dog treats are labeled with a little smiley face that says irradiated.
If they are doing it for such things as doggy treats, then I would suspect they would also do it for items to be consumed by humans.

Who says? Help me understand this...

[Truth Warrior]

The dogs think they are great. They would eat them all at once if I let them. :cool: The stuff that even the dogs won't eat, is what concerns me. :)

[Dr.3D]

Who says? Help me understand this...

Here is the little smiley face label.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Radura-Symbol.svg/150px-Radura-Symbol.svg.png



In the US as in many other countries irradiated food must be labeled as "Treated with irradiation" or "Treated by radiation" and require the usage of the Radura symbol at the point of sale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_pasteurization

[Kade]

Here is the little smiley face label.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Radura-Symbol.svg/150px-Radura-Symbol.svg.png



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_pasteurization

Who says that they have to label, or if they do label, that it is accurate?

[LittleLightShining]

I had a feeling this was coming. They tried to push it about 10 years ago and it didn't go over so well. Now that there has been a rash of contaminated food situations it was only a matter of time before they took advantage to sell us nuked food.

I don't trust the technology. I don't trust the safety of the food. I want labels so I can choose. I don't want restaurants feeding me irradiated food that I don't know about. I have a right to know what I'm eating.

[Dr.3D]

Who says that they have to label, or if they do label, that it is accurate?


As part of its approval, the FDA requires since 1986 that irradiated foods include labeling with either the statement “treated with radiation” or “treated by irradiation,” along with the Radura. In the USA, irradiation labeling requirements apply only to foods sold in stores. For example, irradiated spices or fresh strawberries should be labeled. Irradiation labeling does not apply to restaurant foods or processed foods.[6] (NOTE: The RADURA-symbol as compulsory under FDA-rule has a design slightly different from the Codex Alimentarius version;[2] the 'leaves' being empty areas.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radura

[Kade]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radura

I know what it is... my question is still the same.

How do you "make" a company to place that on their products, or how to you force them to put the right label?

[Dr.3D]

I know what it is... my question is still the same.

How do you "make" a company to place that on their products, or how to you force them to put the right label?

Beats me... maybe you should go and make them do it.
How can you trust anybody to do anything?

[Kade]

Beats me... maybe you should go and make them do it.
How can you trust anybody to do anything?

I'm not going to make anybody do anything. Don't get **cking testy with me. I was trying to be respectful.

If the world is to be put in the hands of people who don't have enough intellectual fortitude to do their own research... for instance, in the regards to irradiation of food, then the conceptual realization of a free market starts off as a failure from the get go.

Wait until one of your kids dies from mysterious illness, or some other insane byproduct of untested, and unvetted chemicals in all things. The world is too complicated to let things go through the test runs of the "try, survive or die " method.

In a free market, nobody should be forced to label their food "irradiated"... So all the grocers can sell food, "no radiation" when in reality they are.. nobody is stopping them.

[dannno]

I thought they decided it wasn't the spinach that had e coli?? wtf??

I don't fucking care how safe it is, I have no desire to eat irradiated spinach.

[Dr.3D]

By the same standard you are using. Nobody should be able to tell them they can not irradiate food and sell it.

I guess you will have to flip a coin and decide whether to eat or starve.

[Kade]

By the same standard you are using. Nobody should be able to tell them they can not irradiate food and sell it.

I guess you will have to flip a coin and decide whether to eat or starve.

So we are in agreement. You guys will be eating irradiated food, and like it. Cheers.

[dannno]

In a free market, nobody should be forced to label their food "irradiated"... So all the grocers can sell food, "no radiation" when in reality they are.. nobody is stopping them.

That is why branding is such an important concept in the free market.

Ultimately companies will want people to trust them, so they will go out of their way to make sure they are doing everything right. I shop at places like Trader Joe's and Lazy Acres because they have tapped into a market of people who do educate themselves about food, and are effectively acting as a free market enterprise normally would. It is the people at Albertsons and Vons who are not educated about what they are eating, and they trust the food that comes from their because it is regulated by the government... which is precisely the reason I will not shop there..

Right now we are in a situation where people will eat anything offered up for sale just because the FDA says it's ok.. so people don't do their own research and don't learn about their food because they trust the government, who is actually making our food more toxic and less safe.

[Kade]

That is why branding is such an important concept in the free market.

Ultimately companies will want people to trust them, so they will go out of their way to make sure they are doing everything right. I shop at places like Trader Joe's and Lazy Acres because they have tapped into a market of people who do educate themselves about food, and are effectively acting as a free market enterprise normally would. It is the people at Albertsons and Vons who are not educated about what they are eating, and they trust the food that comes from their because it is regulated by the government... which is precisely the reason I will not shop there..

Right now we are in a situation where people will eat anything offered up for sale just because the FDA says it's ok.. so people don't do their own research and don't learn about their food because they trust the government, who is actually making our food more toxic and less safe.

Thank you for answering me...

Do you think there will be a vetting period? A time in when people die first, so as to prove what things are safe and what are not? What about long term effects of such things?

[LittleLightShining]

By the same standard you are using. Nobody should be able to tell them they can not irradiate food and sell it.

I guess you will have to flip a coin and decide whether to eat or starve.Or we can develop relationships with local farms and get our food from the source.


Labeling is tricky. Monsanto fought against mandatory labeling of dairy products using milk from cows using rBGH. They won. Then they fought against food producers who labeled their foods as rBGH-free. I think they finally lost that battle, but it ended up being a state-by-state issue and was very long and drawn out.

[Dr.3D]

Or we can develop relationships with local farms and get our food from the source.


Well, I tried to develop a relationship with the dairy farm across the road from me. This was fine, but you see, I was told I could not buy my milk from him because it was illegal for him to sell it to me.

He doesn't want to just give the milk to me either. Perhaps I could trade something for the milk and that way he would not be selling it to me. I don't know how that would work out.

[dannno]

Thank you for answering me...

Do you think there will be a vetting period? A time in when people die first, so as to prove what things are safe and what are not? What about long term effects of such things?

Yes, there will be a 'vetting' period, but the idea is that in the long-term we will be safer because the free market is better at filtering out dangerous things than a government, inevitably controlled by special interests who control the very industry they are attempting to regulate.

The idea behind limited government is that when you give government power over anything, especially something related to the markets which is profitable, ultimately it will be controlled by the industry. By taking the power away from government and putting it into the hands of the free market, you take away that power.

The machine that has been created in this country is absolutely fascinating.. the way that the media, corporations and government cooperate together and fool people is astounding. If you remove the link where the government controls everything, suddenly the consumer is in complete control. When competition increases to free market levels, it is extremely difficult for any one entity to maintain complete control without going back to the government for their authority.

Also, people will tend to buy from locally owned companies rather than Walmarts and whatnot. This is because people trust someone who has been around there town for a while.. big stores won't disappear.. Sears was a big convenience for people back in the day, their catalog had everything... but now every god damn store in town is a chain it seems..

[Kade]

Yes, there will be a 'vetting' period, but the idea is that in the long-term we will be safer because the free market is better at filtering out dangerous things than a government, inevitably controlled by special interests who control the very industry they are attempting to regulate.

The idea behind limited government is that when you give government power over anything, especially something related to the markets which is profitable, ultimately it will be controlled by the industry. By taking the power away from government and putting it into the hands of the free market, you take away that power.

The machine that has been created in this country is absolutely fascinating.. the way that the media, corporations and government cooperate together and fool people is astounding. If you remove the link where the government controls everything, suddenly the consumer is in complete control. When competition increases to free market levels, it is extremely difficult for any one entity to maintain complete control without going back to the government for their authority.

Also, people will tend to buy from locally owned companies rather than Walmarts and whatnot. This is because people trust someone who has been around there town for a while.. big stores won't disappear.. Sears was a big convenience for people back in the day, their catalog had everything... but now every god damn store in town is a chain it seems..

Every time a new replacement has been found for a product, one that might be unsafe, but is much cheaper, won't the vetting process begin anew?

Not to mention that I just don't see voters liking this... I'm a realist, I don't see how corporate media sheep are going to be content to just let it be... .

I don't know... seems far fetched.

[Dr.3D]

Every time a new replacement has been found for a product, one that might be unsafe, but is much cheaper, won't the vetting process begin anew?

Not to mention that I just don't see voters liking this... I'm a realist, I don't see how corporate media sheep are going to be content to just let it be... .

I don't know... seems far fetched.

Ok, I'm curious now as to what your suggestion would be as to how to solve this issue.

[strapko]

Kade I think in a free-market these companies would test their foods/list the ingredients, because these reasons:

A) If other companies list their ingredients, people will most likely buy from them.
B) By putting hazardous ingredients into food they will be sued to smithereens and their million dollar company goes down the drain, I don't see the incentive to put in hazardous ingredients.
C) With the F.D.A today we have harmful ingredients in food today such as aspartame, but people still buy it, because they do not care. There was also a domino's study that people will eat anything.
D) How many people actually read the ingredients in the store? I see none when I shop.

[Charles Wilson]

We consumers have no idea what is being done to our food supply. If you think irradiating vegetables is bad, check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics).

That begs the question, what percentage of the animal has to have human DNA to be classified a human being and not an animal? Cannibalism anyone? Hmmm, hmmm, not so good!

We may have a choice to make, whereas we can become cannibals or glow in the dark, or both. The other option is to stop eating.

[Alex Libman]

FDA should just go away. It its absence, there'll be multiple free market certification agencies, and you'd be able to pick the one you trust. (Or just trust your supermarket, with higher-end supermarkets having an incentive to protect their reputation by screening their products.)

[madengr]

The food is required to be labeled irradiated for the same reason it's required to have ingredients, nutrients, etc. labeled on it; federal law I suppose. Not that I agree with federal law. The reason I don't buy food from China is I don't know what's going into it. Remember the melamine in the wheat gluten?

[american.swan]

The FDA, and it's board of former big-pharma lobbyists and CEOs needs to be abolished.

I haven't read this whole thread but I can say that the FDA is not needed, but doing the right thing here. Stossel's book talks about this. It's fine. I'd eat this food.

[HonestyInMedicine]

The FDA, and it's board of former big-pharma lobbyists and CEOs needs to be abolished.

That is putting it nicely.

[A. Havnes]

I don't think it will all be irradiated anyway. This bill has passed. http://www.nofany.org/hottopics/irradiatedfoodvictory.htm

[SeanEdwards]

How about letting the free market decide. As long as it's labeled truthfully then who cares. I'd buy it.

I agree, and I want some radioactive spinach too.