Contact: Campaign for Food Safety Danila Oder, Activist with the Los Angeles Office (213) 387-5122 home, (323) 226-7798 work and doder@hsc.usc.edu

A little-known provision of the FDA Modernization Act of 1997 directed the FDA to explore the possibility of allowing labeling of irradiated foods to expire. Unexpected public interest-over 8000 comments and petition signatures, almost all in favor of retaining labels-has prompted the FDA to extend the comment period. Last Friday, May 21, 1999, the FDA announced that the comment period will now end July 19 instead of May 18.

The FDA has approved irradiation for essentially all foods, but a tiny label (the size of the ingredient list) is currently required. The amendment to eliminate labeling was inserted in the FDA Modernization Act by Senators Harkin (IA), Jeffords (VT), and McConnell (KY), and Rep. Ganske (IA) without public hearings and with little media coverage. The bill was signed by President Clinton in November 1997.

Congress had told the FDA that labels might cause 'inappropriate anxiety,' resulting in consumers rejecting the irradiated product. Therefore, most comments supporting labeling did not state opposition to irradiation per se. Instead, comments focused on the ways in which consumers would be deceived by the absence of labels.

The number of comments reflects deep concern about the technology, and anger at this attempt to subvert Americans' ability to know what they are eating and feeding to their children. "Protecting the safety of our food supply is a laudable goal," said Danila Oder of the Campaign for Food Safety. "But irradiation has many environmental and health question marks. Consumers who want to avoid irradiated food should have that choice. Also, removing the labels will cause of flood of irradiated foods to enter the market: food processors will irradiate merely to protect themselves from liability. The FDA based its approval of irradiation on only five of 441 studies; all five were criticized as inappropriate by Donald Louria, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at the New Jersey Medical School. With no human feeding studies longer than 15 weeks, and no studies on children, Americans should not be forced to participate in this uncontrolled experiment."

The destruction of food pathogens by ionizing radiation from a source such as cobalt-60 or cesium-137 (a nuclear waste product) has been studied in the US for about 40 years. After considering it a serious health hazard in the 1960s, the FDA reversed its position in the early 1980s, under pressure from the Department of Energy, which wanted to privatize nuclear wastes. At the same time, President Reagan's deregulation of the meat industry, reducing the number of inspectors and increasing slaughter speeds, contributed heavily to a sudden increase in food poisoning outbreaks and new pathogens.

In the last several years, due to repeated outbreaks of food poisoning, food safety has taken center stage in Washington, DC. In August 1998, President Clinton created a Council on Food Safety to improve food safety through science-based regulation and well-coordinated inspection, enforcement, research, and education programs, involving the FDA, USDA, US EPA and CDC. Irradiation is one of the tools under consideration.

The proposal to remove labels shows that irradiation proponents' first concern is shielding the factory farming industry from liability for food poisoning. Irradiation at the slaughterhouse or packing plant will not protect the consumer if the meat is recontaminated during processing at a restaurant, supermarket or home. Those consumers who want to choose irradiated meat for its lowered bacteria content will not even be able to do so!

"Rather than take obvious steps such as slowing down slaughter speeds, feeding grass to cattle for a few days before slaughter, and changing chicken chilling procedures, the meat and poultry industry prefers to have its agents in Congress force irradiation on the public," says Oder. "In an August 1997 CBS news poll, 77% of American consumers said they would not eat irradiated food. It's time for them to tell their representatives in Congress to reverse this directive to the FDA, and require permanent, prominent labeling of all irradiated foods."

The FDA Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking can be found at http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/98fr/021799a.txt

For more information about food irradiation, please contact Danila Oder at 213/387-5122 or doder@hsc.usc.edu.

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Headquarters: The Campaign for Food Safety (formerly the Pure Food Campaign) 860 Highway 61, Little Marais, Minnesota 55614 Activist or Media Inquiries: (218) 226-4164, Fax: (218) 226-4157 http://www.purefood.org Affiliated with the International Center for Technology Assessment and the Organic Consumers Association