The years of those statements were 1957 and 1981, respectively. Yet this life-saving food preservation process that has only now been approved by the FDA use on red meat. And for other foods it's already been approved for, it goes virtually unused. The answer is a cautionary tale of what happens when environmentalism and technophobia reign over science. Each year, about 9,000 Americans die of food poisoning.
Nobody knows exactly how many can be prevented with irradiation.
The irradiation process uses gamma rays from cobalt-60, electron beams fired from machines, or other systems to bombard food with varying levels of ionizing radiation. While other methods of foods preservation have simply been grandfathered in with little or no study, researchers around the world have scrutinized food irradiation for decades, producing hundreds of studies. Yet even these approvals have been little more than symbolic. Threats of public campaigns and pickets against food processors and stores considering selling irradiated food, along with horrifying claims of anti-irradiation activists, have made it practically impossible to buy irradiated food in this country other than spices. Powerful groups like CSPI and physician Sidney Wolfe's Public Citizen have fought it tooth and nail, using both petitions to the FDA and appeals directly to the people.