The issue of irradiation in Canada has been relatively quiet since 2002 when the Canadian government proposed expanding the list of foods allowed to be irradiated. They wanted to include mangoes, fresh and frozen ground beef, fresh and frozen poultry, and prepackaged fresh, frozen, prepared and dried shrimp and prawns. Fortunately, due to public resistance and health advocacy, there has been no expansion of the irradiation allowances to date.

The latest news about food irradiation comes from the US. In April of this year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed watering down the current regulations for the labeling of their irradiated foods, which involve a long list of items including meat. The more relaxed rules would allow food manufacturers to label irradiated foods as "pasteurized," and allow companies to petition the government to use additional alternative terms to replace "irradiated."

In a Canadian Press news release, Jeff Barach, vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers/Food Products Association, admitted that the term irradiation has a negative impact on the consumer and that it ends up being considered a warning label. He, the FDA, the nuclear industry, and specific parts of the food manufacturing industry see this as a problem. He says that fixing this "problem" will enable the food industry to provide consumers with safe and wholesome foods with reduced risk of food borne pathogens.

The US FDA has also proposed that companies only label irradiated food when the radiation treatment has caused a material change to the product. Their examples include changes to the taste, texture, smell or shelf life of a food.

Is irradiated food safe?
Logical consumers can deduce that a process harsh enough to kill the majority of pathogenic bacteria, insects and moulds in a food is also strong enough to change other factors in the food, but Health Canada follows the guidance of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (of which it is a member), which states that foods irradiated below 10 kilo grays present no toxicological hazard. According to the International Institute of Concern for Public Health (IICPC), however, 10 kilo grays is equivalent to approximately 100 million times the amount received during a hospital chest x-ray. In fact, irradiation is so powerful it is even being touted as a solution to any possible bird flu pandemic.

A number of experts and organizations state that eating irradiated foods is unsafe. Samuel Epstein, MD, professor emeritus of environmental medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago, reports that a new class of chemicals is created in the process or irradiation. These chemicals, called cyclobutanones, have been shown to cause genetic and cellular damage in rats as well as people.

The US national non-profit public interest organization, Public Citizen, explains that among the hundreds or perhaps thousands of chemicals formed by exposure to radiation are "Unique radiolytic products and free radicals that have never been completely identified, much less adequately evaluated for safety."

In addition, according to published research by Epstein and WenonahHauter, executive director of Food and Water Watch, food irradiation results in major micronutrient losses, particularly of vitamins A, C, E, and the B complex. Also, studies have shown that valuable plant enzymes and disease-fighting plant chemicals do not survive microwaving, therefore, it appears unlikely that they would survive the even harsher process of irradiation, which is designed to kill anything alive in food.

The Sierra Club of Canada reports that irradiating foods damages some amino acids and fatty acids. They also report that irradiation can actually cause food poisoning since treated foods may be contaminated but appear fresh. In China and India, where ethical standards for test subjects are lower than in Western civilization, people eating irradiated food developed chromosomal abnormalities.

Irradiation in Canada
Food irradiation has been regulated by the Food and Drugs Act for four decades. Until 1989 it was considered a food additive, but now is considered a process, which means any newly created chemicals are not required to pass tests of toxicity as do other food additives. Canadian food manufacturers are permitted to irradiate potatoes and onions to inhibit sprouting; wheat flour to control insects; and whole ground spices and dehydrated seasonings to reduce microbial content.

Sanitation, not irradiation
Why is such unhealthy, old or infected foods allowed into the food market in the first place? Good question. "Bacterial food poisoning can be readily prevented by long overdue basic sanitary measures rather than by ultra hazardous irradiation technologies," write Epstein and Hauter in a journal article titled "Preventing Pathogenic Food Poisoning: Sanitation Not Irradiation."

In 2005, the European Civil Society released a statement against food irradiation, saying, "Food irradiation is  often used as a substitute for good sanitary practices and misleads consumers, as it kills spoilage bacteria, which tells people when food is rotten through smell or sight." The group's food irradiation campaign slogan is: Good food doesn't need irradiating.

The real problem
Consumers are not willing to eat food that is unsafe and damaged, which poses a problem for the government and those who benefit from irradiation. The real problem as consumers, however, is the possible covering up of the irradiation process with alternative terms and watered down regulations. Rosalie Bertell, PhD, founder of the IICPC and author of many articles and a book about irradiation, writes, "The Canadian and American public is justifiably concerned over the unknown effects of the irradiation of food. Consumer resistance will and should continue until these effects are known and quantified. Toxicological testing should be mandatory."

Public Citizen agrees, stating, "Rather than cleaning up food factories and hiring more food inspectors industry wants a cheap fix."

Michael Jacobson, Executive Director the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says irradiation, "Is a high-tech end-of-the-line solution to contamination problems that can and should be addressed earlier."

Epstein and Hauter suggest, "The "electronically pasteurized" label by the food and radiation industries, governmental agencies, and Congress, is a camouflaged denial of citizen's fundamental right to know."

Sandra Tonn is a registered holistic nutritionist, natural health writer and speaker, whole foods nutrition teacher, and certified hatha, yin, and kids yoga instructor. www.sandratonn.com

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