FDA proposes softening label requirements for irradiated foods[To be called ”pasteurized”]

AP ^ | 03 April 2007 | AP

[Dacb]

WASHINGTON - The government proposed Tuesday relaxing its rules on labeling of irradiated foods and suggested it may allow some products zapped with radiation to be called ”pasteurized.”

The Food and Drug Administration said the proposed rule would require companies to label irradiated food only when the radiation treatment causes a material change to the product. Examples includes changes to the taste, texture, smell or shelf life of a food.

The FDA also proposed letting companies use the term ”pasteurized” to describe irradiated foods. To do so, they would have to show the FDA that the radiation kills germs as well as the pasteurization process does. Pasteurization typically involves heating a product to a high temperature and then cooling it rapidly.

In addition, the proposal would let companies petition the agency to use additional alternate terms other than ”irradiated.”

The FDA posted the proposed revisions to its rules on irradiated foods on its Web site Tuesday, a day before they were to be published in the Federal Register. FDA will accept public comments on the proposal for 90 days. A consumer group immediately urged the FDA to drop the idea.

”This move by FDA would deny consumers clear information about whether they are buying food that has been exposed to high doses of ionizing radiation,” Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, said in a statement.

The FDA acknowledges in the proposed rule that allowing alternative ways of describing irradiation could confuse consumers: ”Research indicates that many consumers regard substitute terms for irradiation to be misleading,” the proposal reads in part. FDA officials were not immediately available for comment.

A 1984 FDA proposal to allow irradiated foods to go label-free garnered the agency more than 5,000 comments. Two years later, it reversed course and published a final rule that requires the small number of FDA-regulated foods now treated with radiation to bear identifying labels, including the radiation symbol.

Foods still require FDA approval before they can be irradiated. Examples currently radiated include a small number of fruits, vegetables, spices and eggs. The technique kills bacteria but does not cause food to become radioactive.

Recent outbreaks of foodborne illness have revived interest in irradiation, even though it is not suitable for all food products. For example, irradiating diced Roma tomatoes makes them go mushy, the FDA says.

The proposed rule would apply only to foods regulated by the FDA. However, if and when the rule is finalized, the Department of Agriculture could undergo a similar process to change the irradiation labeling requirements for the foods it regulates, including meat and poultry, said Amanda Eamich, a spokeswoman for USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

[ASA Vet]

I am not at all hostile. I have no connection with any agribusiness or food business of any kind. (I do plant tomatoes in the summer though.)

Your post seems to be an attempt to get Ham and I to quarreling. Sorry we've both been here long enough to not fall for it.

[ASA Vet]

So are you being sarcastic?

[GovernmentIsTheProblem]

Prions exist, I’m engaged to one!

After we’re married she will be the cell that incubates the future little twisted prions.

[jordan8]

Label irradiated food as irradiated and let the consumer choose.

[mysterio]

There's a general agreement that they exist, and some characterization.

From NIH :

Prions enter brain cells and there convert the normal cell protein PrPC to the prion form of the protein, called PrPSC. When normal cell proteins transform into prions, amino acids that are folded tightly into alpha helical structures relax into looser beta sheets. More and more PrPC molecules transform into PrPSC molecules, until eventually prions completely clog the infected brain cells. The cells misfire, work poorly, or don't work at all. In mad cow disease, for example, with their brain cells running amuck, the mad cows wobble and stagger and appear fearful--their "madness" is craziness, not anger. Sheep and goats with the disease scrapie, which is like mad cow disease, become so uncomfortable and itchy that they frantically rub up against anything they can, finally scraping off--hence, the name of the disease--most of their wool and hair (2).

Here are some articles from PBS, written to be more easily understandable, with some arguments for and against prions : link

[wideminded]

Cool, anything that improves the quality and safety of available foods is a good thing.

I agree. But I'm guessing that you are not really a doctor since it doesn't bother you that government bureaucrats are changing the definition of a process that has protected the public health for 150 years. Irradiation is not pasteurization.

[kalee]

Same here.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

No, I’m not a doctor. Are you?

There are many people who are so irrationally terrified of the word radiation they would starve before eating a food product that had been irradiated even though that food item was as safe as the heat pasteurized item.

If the process of pasteurization and the process of irradiation reach the same end result, what’s the difference? Who is harmed? Someone obviously came to injury considering the outrage, right? Right?

Dead bacteria are dead bacteria. They aren’t going to cause harm no matter how they were killed. Steam or radiation bombardment, they are dead and likely to stay that way.

So if the FDA decides to expand the definition of pasteurization to include foods that have been treated by the irradiation process AND there is ABSOLUTELY ZERO HARM DONE, what’s the problem? The FDA alters, expands, contracts and modifies definitions on a regular basis. Like any government body, it changes depending on who is in charge and who screams loudest. It’s the way business is done on the federal, state and local level.

Am I worried that they are changing? Not really. Will this change cause harm? No. Are there some who will look for any wedge issue to shove their Luddite agenda into the main stream? Absolutely.

[wideminded]

It has been pointed out many times on FR that conservatives trust people to think, whereas liberals assume everyone is stupid.

This is a case where the government and the owners of food irradiation plants are going with the most-people-are-stupid theory.

The reason for the name change is the same reason that "nuclear magnetic resonance" became "magnetic resonance" - marketing.

Personally I would feel safer knowing my food has been irradiated. But I still think I have a right to know. Changing the names of things seems like just another kind of PC.

BTW somebody better be keeping track of the cobalt rods used in food irradiation, especially since we are importing more of our food. In the past similar rods used in hospital equipment have ended up in scrap heaps where they were misused with bad results.

In one case in Mexico some of the rods were melted down and used to make steel. This was exported to the US. The problem was only detected when a truck full of radioactive rebar accidentally drove onto the grounds of a US government laboratory where there were radiation detectors.

[hoosierham]

I,for one, don’t care for the Mad Hatter Dictionary;words have accepted standardized meanings and this particular change and similar ones are the lazy,dishonest way of quieting public fears.

Incidentally many people are scared of anything associated with the word “radiation” to the extent electric heaters now are “radiant heaters” in the sales brochure....

Why did our great grandparents learn so much in 8 years of school while our current population learn so little in 16 years?

[Free Thinking Conservative]

I’ve been here since 1998 though my screen name doesn’t show it. Not trying to start arguments. :)

[Free Thinking Conservative]

More info. I’ve been on FR like I said since 1998 and there seems to be growing intolerance for others’ views, even if conservative. One reason I don’t come here as often as I used to.

Freedom to buy the kind of food you want and talk about it shouldn’t be a big deal. If you want to spend more for better food, then why not? I might also add that it creates a new market for an improved product. More entrepreurial opportunities.

Further, there aren’t too many illegals working on farms in my local area. They’re generally employed in the construction trades and landscaping.