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Don't Fear Spinach -- Irradiate It
By Paisan Loaharanu
The recent outbreak of E. coli in spinach grown in California, resulting in some 200 illnesses and three deaths in almost thirty states in the USA (as of October 10) should serve as a reminder to all of us that an effective technology was not used to ensure the safety of fresh produce, including spinach in the market place. Regrettably, the outbreak caused many consumers to avoid fresh produce, especially leafy vegetables, important sources of nutrients needed to maintain our health. One country even went as far as banning the import of fresh lettuce grown in California.
The fact is fresh produce has caused more foodborne illnesses than meat and poultry in the past decade. Many of us will remember major outbreaks caused by sprouts, lettuce, cantaloupe, and even spinach in recent years. No one seems to take much notice until the outbreaks become news, and we tend to forget about it soon after. The FDA first issued a safety guideline to growers of produce as early as 1998 and sent strong letters to the growers following the outbreaks of E. coli in lettuce in 2004. We tend to pin our hopes on the FDA guidelines and the use of good agricultural practice by the growers to avoid contaminations by various pathogens in fresh produce. Unfortunately, microbial contamination can come from multiple sources at various steps in the produce production chain, including bird and other animal droppings, manure, flood water, irrigation, sewage, and even human handling, both before and after harvesting. Washing before packaging and before consumption can reduce but cannot eliminate contamination in fresh produce.
The current stage of centralized production and distribution of fresh produce makes it difficult for the industry to avoid contamination. Lettuce and spinach are collected from many fields and processed in a centralized facility using common vats for washing prior to bagging. Contamination of produce harvested from one field can easily spread to those harvested from others at centralized facilities. Unfortunately, it takes less than 100 cells of some pathogens such as E. coli 0157:H7 to cause illnesses and even deaths. The situation is similar to centralized production of ground beef, chicken, spices, etc. where contamination can easily spread during processing.
It is unrealistic to attempt to produce beef, chicken, fresh produce, or spices free from pathogens except at an enormous cost not affordable by average consumers. We have to be conscious that food of animal origin as well as fresh produce, especially bagged leafy and pre-cut vegetables, can be contaminated by pathogens. Thus, these foods should undergo certain treatments to render them safe, just as milk is normally pasteurized. While attempts have been made to search for effective methods to ensure the microbiological safety of fresh produce, irradiation -- a method proven safe and effective for inactivating pathogenic bacteria in any fresh, frozen, or dried food -- continues to be ignored.
Irradiation has been approved by the FDA as a method to ensure microbiological safety of fresh and frozen meat, poultry, shell eggs, crustaceans, and dried food, such as spices and vegetable seasoning and sprouting seeds. It is used widely to ensure hygienic quality of spices and vegetable seasonings and, to a certain extent, of ground beef and poultry. In 1986, the FDA approved the use of irradiation of fresh produce only for insect disinfestations and to delay physiological growth (such as ripening of fruits, sprout inhibition of roots and tubers, etc.) but not for pathogen control. For unclear reasons, the FDA continues to delay the approval, based on a petition submitted by the National Food Processor Association (NFPA) in 2000, of irradiated ready-to-eat food including fresh, pre-cut fruits and vegetables.
It is unrealistic to assume that we would attempt to irradiate all of our food supplies, just as no one should contemplate canning, freezing, drying, or fumigating all of our food supplies. We have to deal with the situation on a case by case basis to assess which technology brings the most benefit to us. Irradiation is the most effective and most versatile method to ensure the hygienic quality of more solid foods (such as meat, seafood, poultry, fresh produce, spices, etc.), while thermal pasteurization is generally best for liquid foods, e.g., milk.
The food industry and the FDA must take irradiation seriously to prevent further foodborne illnesses, especially those associated with ready-to-eat food, including fresh produce. Ample scientific data show the effectiveness of this technology in combating various pathogens in essentially any type of food, including leafy vegetables such as lettuce and spinach. Irradiation is a safe food process recognized by many national and international health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO). There is a Codex General Standard for Irradiated Foods from the Codex Alimentarius Commission (recognized by the World Trade Organization), which endorses irradiation as a safe process.
The CDC has stated that the number of foodborne illnesses could be reduced substantially if irradiation is used to ensure the hygienic quality of various types of foods. With hundreds of thousands of foodborne illnesses and thousand of deaths attributable to foodborne illnesses in the U.S. every year, can we afford to waste any more time in not using the most effective technology available?
Paisan Loaharanu is the Former Head, Food and Environmental Protection, Joint FAO/IAEA Division and Adjunct Professor of Food Safety at Michigan State University.
KBartholomay (October 20, 2006)
Your silly article on irradiating spinach is more like a Halloween joke. Irradiation will not create food safety at all. For meats, food safety would be vastly improved by slowing down conveyor belts, so that underpaid no-benefit non-citizen immigrant labor might properly kill and cut up the meat without feces being smeared all over it. The other obvious solution, short of corporate America slowing down a conveyor belt is for consumers to cook all meat well done. This completely solves the problem, by the way, and I am certain you know that already. However, your only advice is RADICAL IRRADIATION. As far as vegetables go, I wash mine prior to use. The chance of illness is far far far lower from washed spinach than irradiated spinach (some washed spinach could be contaminated but ALL IRRADIATED SPINACH IS CONTAMINATED) and besides those nice e coli critters and others will simply mutate. Meanwhile, there's more cancer drugs to sell, huh? You people strike me as rather radically motivated. Did the Cattle Industry aka USDA pay you to write this article? I have heard of many instances already in recent years where writers are paid to create propaganda as fact, so I was just wondering. Of course, maybe it is "just your opinion". In which case, you have a right to it but the rest of us have the right to think IRRADIATED SPINACH IS STUPID.
Paisan Loaharanu (October 23, 2006)
_The article author replies:_
First, it is beyond me how anyone can accuse spinach of being "STUPID," regardless of irradiation. The second allegation that "ALL IRRADIATED SPINACH IS CONTAMINATED" needs some clarification as to what kind of contamination he was talking about before I can make a sensible rebuttal.
Obviously, Mr. Bartholomay has no knowledge of irradiation of food. He should, however, not accuse anyone who has the knowledge and the right to express his scientific opinion of being "paid" by the industry or even the USDA. The fact is, no one paid me to write this article to bring to light information that could help the food industry to save lives.
Hopefully, Mr. Bartholomay will get the right information about irradiation of food if he reads the booklet on "Irradiated Foods" (see http://www.acsh.org/publications/pubID.198/pub_detail.asp ) that I had the pleasure of updating it for ACSH in 2003.
Regards,
Paisan
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