Irradiation helps strawberries stay good to eat. Irradiation can also make food safer to eat. Raw meat, especially ground meat that we use for making hamburgers, supports bacteria. When meat is handled and cooked properly, the bacteria and other microorganisms are killed, and people stay healthy. If meat is not handled and cooked properly, the microorganisms continue to grow and can make people sick.
Some people become so sick from eating contaminated food that they die.
The E.coli bacteria continued growing in the undercooked hamburgers. People who ate the hamburgers became very sick and several died as a result. If the ground meat had been irradiated before leaving the meat packing plant, the E. coli bacteria would have been killed. Irradiation would also help us make other meats safer. Bacteria called salmonella are one of the most common causes of foodborne illness.