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During irradiation food is exposed to high doses of radiation in the form of gamma rays, X-rays or electron beams. Irradiation can kill nearly all bacteria in food, both good and bad, but has no effect on the infectious agent that causes mad cow disease, or on viruses,¹ such as those that cause hepatitis or foot and mouth disease.

What foods are irradiated?

Foods currently approved for irradiation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration include meat and poultry, eggs, fruits and vegetables, juices, herbs, spices and flour.

How is food irradiation different from microwaving?

Food is irradiated to extend its shelf life. It uses gamma rays with short wavelengths and high frequencies that penetrate food so rapidly that little or no heat is produced. Microwaving, which uses longer wavelengths, causes foods to heat rapidly.

Effects of food irradiation

The long-term health consequences of eating irradiated food are still unknown. Irradiation creates a complex series of reactions that alter the molecular structure of food and create known carcinogens,² including benzene, and other toxic chemicals, including toluene.³ In addition, byproducts of irradiation, called 2-ACBs, which do not occur naturally in any food, have been linked to cancer in rats⁴ and genetic damage in human cells.⁵ Animals fed irradiated foods have died prematurely and suffered mutations, stillbirths, organ damage and nutritional deficiencies.⁶

Irradiation can also change the flavor, odor, texture, color and nutritional content of food.⁷ For example, yolks of irradiated eggs are more watery and have less color and brightness than non-irradiated eggs.⁸ Irradiation also destroys the niacin and vitamins in eggs, including up to 24 percent of vitamin A, at just one-third the radiation level approved by the FDA.⁹

Irradiation is used to create a false sense of security about food safety. It is promoted as a solution to the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions on factory farms that make animals susceptible to disease, and to the filthy conditions in slaughterhouses that endanger the health of people who eat that meat. However, since irradiation does not eliminate all bacteria from foods, and since foods can be contaminated or re-contaminated after having been irradiated, the process does not prevent food borne illness. That is why the FDA recommends the same food-handling practices for irradiated foods as for non-irradiated foods.¹⁰

What You Can Do

• Avoid buying foods with the radura symbol.
  
• Tell your local school board officials that irradiated foods should not be served in schools.
  
• Ask restaurant and grocery store managers not to sell irradiated foods.

Did You Know?

• Proper cooking destroys more bacteria than irradiation.¹¹
  
• In a study conducted by Consumer Reports, professional taste testers noticed that most samples of cooked irradiated beef and chicken had “a slight but distinct off-taste and smell” similar to that of singed hair.¹²
  
• In 2007 the FDA proposed a rule, still pending approval, which would exempt some irradiated foods from labeling requirements based on whether the FDA agrees with assessments that the process does not alter them in ways that are detrimental to consumers. The proposed rule uses spices as an example of a food that the FDA “tentatively believes” could be irradiated without “the potential to be detrimental to the consumer.” In other cases manufacturers would be allowed to label foods “pasteurized” that are, in fact, irradiated.

For more information

• Food & Water Watch – a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food through research, public and policymaker education, and lobbying. In 2008 they published the book Zapped! Irradiation and the Death of Food
  
• Center for Food Safety – is a non-profit organization committed to challenging harmful food production technologies and promoting sustainable alternatives.

Reports and Articles

• “Preventing Pathogenic Food Poisoning: Sanitation Not Irradiation,” International Journal of Health Services, 2001.
  
• “Status of Food Irradiation Around the World“, Food & Water Watch, 2006.
  
• “Fact Sheet: History, Background and Status of Labeling of Irradiated Foods” Organic Consumers Association, 2008.

Page last updated August 2009