Is Irradiated Food Safe to Eat?

These days, food safety is a big issue. There have been E. coli outbreaks in vegetables and undercooked meat that have caused serious illness and even death in some people, especially the very old or very young. The more susceptible someone is to infection, the more easily they can become ill from contaminated food. So what can you do to assure your family is eating food that's not infected with bacteria?

While making sure meat is thoroughly cooked and vegetables are washed carefully is generally effective, it doesn't always prevent an infection. A fairly new technology called irradiation has been developed and tested as a way to prevent bacteria from infecting food. The food products are exposed quickly to a radiation source like gamma rays, which kills any bacteria that's present on the food, whether it is meat, fruit or vegetables. Once the bacteria has been killed, the food is safe to eat. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave their approval for food in the United States to be irradiated. Studies have shown that in addition to killing bacteria, irradiation can also reduce spoilage and kill insects or insect larvae.

The United States isn't the only country using irradiation for food safety. The World Health Organization (WHO) agrees with the process of irradiation and reports that around 40 countries throughout the world use this process. Contrary to what some people think, irradiation does not make the food radioactive, but laws state that irradiated food must be labeled as such. Some groups of consumer advocates don't agree with irradiating food and believe that the process might destroy the nutritional content of the food. While it has been proven to kill E. coli and Salmonella, the consumer groups don't believe that the benefit of killing bacteria outweighs the fact that the radiation might kill off the benefits of vitamins.

Even though irradiated food has been approved by the FDA, not too many grocery stores sell it. Polls of consumers, however, has shown that they would be willing to purchase irradiated food for their families to reduce the risk of bacterial infection. The cost of irradiated food is a bit more expensive than non-irradiated food. For those people who are against irradiation, they promote good cleanliness habits like avoiding cross-contamination of foods-washing all utensils, pans and cutting boards when cutting or handling different meats-and completely cleaning all kitchen surfaces. With extra care, food can be eaten safely with or without irradiation, but the choice lies with the consumer.