Flavor Key employee at irradiation firm discloses the bad news. The U.S. Agriculture Department is expected to issue in the next few months a set of long-awaited regulations allowing companies to treat raw red meat with small doses of gamma rays or electron beams to kill harmful bacteria. The technology has been eagerly sought by U.S. meat companies and reluctantly accepted by consumer groups as a tool to fight foodborne illnesses. Cargill Inc. The plant builder, Titan Scan Corp., is using technology developed by the Pentagon during the Star Wars Defense Initiative. Experts at a food safety symposium sponsored by the National Food Processors Association warned that irradiation was not simply a matter of zapping ground beef with a high dose to kill as many bugs as possible.
Irradiation causes chemical changes.
That's why it works. To make irradiated meat tasty enough for astronauts, NASA had to experiment with different approaches. The space program finally settled on partially cooking meat, freezing it, then irradiating it to get the best results, Pauli said. The thickness of meat, how much liquid or fat it contains, and whether it is chilled, frozen or at room temperature can all affect the flavor of irradiated meat, experts said. If you pasteurize milk, that changes the flavor too.