food irradiation

Have you started your Christmas and/or holiday shopping? If you're like us, you're putting it off to the last minute – because you're too busy with other things. Here at ACSH, we've been busy telling the world about science. Here's where we've appeared recently.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 48 million Americans get sick with a foodborne illness every year. How can this massive number be greatly reduced? By irradiating our food.
Congratulations to Canada for approving the use of irradiation to help prevent contamination of ground beef from causing foodborne illness. The process has been approved in the US for a variety of foods and purposes, and we're pleased that Canadians can also benefit from its use.
An overwhelming body of scientific data indicates that irradiated food is safe, nutritious, and wholesome. Health authorities worldwide, including leading national and international scientific organizations, have based their approvals of food irradiation on the results of sound scientific research. Irradiation increases the safety profile and the availability of a variety of foods. The safety of food irradiation has been studied more extensively than that of any other food preservation process. As is true of other food processes, irradiation can lead to chemical changes in food.
First Edition, October 1982 Second Edition (revised and updated), July 1985 Third Edition (revised and updated), December 1988 Fourth Edition (revised and updated), March 1996 Revised and updated by Paisan Loaharanu, M.S. International Consultant Former Head Food and Environmental Protection Section Joint FAO/IAEA Division, Vienna, Austria
New York, NY June 19, 1998. The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) today announced its support for the use of irradiation as a fruit and vegetable quarantine process and applauded the planned construction of an irradiation facility near Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii. It is important for consumers to understand that food irradiation is a safe process,