Food irradiators do produce radioactive waste that must be stored under nuclear regulatory guidelines, but the current regulations governing hospitals and sterilization companies seem to work, and the amount of radwaste generated is far too small to cause Three Mile Island-like effects. Advocates like to point out that the waste hasn't killed anyone, but kids die every year from food poisoning. Irradiation also seems more cost-effective than changing farming and slaughtering practices. It's pretty hard to keep feces out of meat. Some meat producers in Sweden do, but their meat is double or even triple the usual price.
Advocates say there'd still be reason to irradiate.
Yet it also seems like a high-tech swatter for an overhyped fly. Toxic E. coli infect just three in 100,000 people. Thanks to officials who pushed for a recall, Hudson hamburgers didn't kill anyone. Irradiation backers exaggerate food poisoning's impact, claiming the top seven contaminants kill 9,000 people each year. According to the most recent data, though, fewer than 1,000 people die from tainted food each year.