The process has been tested for 30 years and declared safe by the World Health Organization, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is accepted in Great Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and 23 other countries. It provides greater safety, much longer storage, and an end to chemical preservatives. Thus it is scientifically embarrassing that the nation's first food-irradiation plant, near Tampa, is drawing protest as if the technology were experimental. It is outrageous that a New York opposition group, Food and Water Inc., threatens to boycott Florida produce, and major grocery chains are intimidated into announcing that they won't stock irradiated food.
Irradiated food is perfectly safe.
What's unsafe for intelligent public discourse is the scientific illiteracy behind this scare campaign against it. The Tampa food irradiator, Vindicator Inc., has demonstrated that it can operate its plant safely. The Department of health and Rehabilitative Services therefore rightly issued it an operating license on Tuesday. State law requires irradiated food to be identified. Those who distrust the world's scientific establishment will no doubt consider such identification to be a warning.