This is Part 4 of a five-part series. Click here for Part 5. From the time a food crop or animal leaves the farm, through its processing and packaging, to its preparation in the kitchen, and finally to the dinner table, lay numerous points where disease-causing bugs can contaminate our food. It is precisely this large window of opportunity for error that makes perfect food safety an impossible goal, experts say. Sadler is a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the National Center for Food Safety and Technology, both in Chicago.
Irradiation involves passing food through an enclosed chamber where it is exposed to high energy.
The energy passes through the food, similar to microwaves, leaving no residue but killing off many potential disease-causing bugs. The American Medical Association, the American Dietetic Association, and the World Health Organization also support food irradiation. Yet some consumer groups have said irradiation diminishes nutritional value and can have harmful effects of its own. Last year, the watchdog group Public Citizen called for public hearings to air evidence on the harmful effects of irradiation. Sadler, however, believes the controversy is largely one of perception.