990723 USDA Sees Meat Irradiation Rules By Year's End

Washington - The U.S. Agriculture Department will wait until at least November to issue its final rules for meatpackers to use irradiation technology to kill illness-causing germs in ground beef.

(INSIGHTS NOTE: Why the wait? By that time, it will be more han two years from the time irradiation was approved and irradiation rule are submitted. It looks to INSIGHTS that someone in the Clinton Administration is purposely delaying implementation of irradiation. Someone should challenge this delay as unlawful, especially since the industry will be requesting expansion of irradiation use to include hot dogs and other processed food products.)

“We're looking at the end of the calendar year, somewhere in the November or December time frame,” Catherine Woteki, USDA undersecretary for food safety, said.

“There have been a number of substantive issues raised in the public comment letters we received on irradiation, and we are continuing to analyze them,” she added.

Irradiation exposes uncooked meat to tiny amounts of electron beams that kill deadly bugs such as E. coli 0157:H7, a virulent form of bacteria that sickens an estimated 20,000 Americans annually.

The USDA has taken nearly two years to draft rules outlining exactly how meat plants can use irradiation. That step occurred only after the Food and Drug Administration spent from 1994 until the end of 1997 reviewing the initial question of whether irradiation was safe for red meat.

The delay in the USDA's final rules is due to the unexpected hundreds of letters, e-mails and faxes from the public, mostly demanding that irradiated meat be clearly labeled so shoppers know what they are buying.

The U.S. meat industry adamantly opposes using “irradiation” or the international radura symbol on packages, saying that consumers might interpret them as a warning or be confused.

Industry and consumer groups have expressed frustration at the slow pace and two-step process needed for government approval of irradiation. A coalition of food groups is expected to file a new petition later this month with the FDA seeking approval to irradiate processed meat products, such as hot dogs, lunch meat and sausages.

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