This hope clouds the thinking we so desperately need to develop solutions to the difficult and real problem of product contamination in the industry's plants.
Irradiation has some benefits to consider, no question.
According to an FSIS information kit, the shelf-life of produce is significantly lengthened by irradiation, and USDA reports that nearly 100 percent of Salmonella cells in raw poultry were destroyed when the product was irradiated at federally approved dosages. USDA apparently now hopes irradiation can be applied to all raw meat and poultry products, most particularly raw ground meat, which was the vector in the recent Pacific Northwest E. Coli tragedy. Further, it is troubling that USDA seems as interested in irradiation becoming the industry's savior as the industry itself. This was quite evident at the Department's hearing on future meat and poultry inspection proposals held last month in Oakland, California. Time and again, USDA panelists at the hearing nodded or commented in agreement to suggestions that irradiation could make the contamination nightmare go away quickly and quietly.