991076 Electronic Bacteria Killer Tested on MeatOctober 26, 1999Sioux City, IA - For as little as a penny a burger, consumers could soon be certain that ground beef is free of food-borne bacteria. Titan Corp. officials unveiled their new electric pasteurization process at a test facility in Sioux City. The SureBeam process, which uses electricity to process meat, vegetables, fruits and other foods, already has won approval from the Food and Drug Administration and expects acceptance from USDA by year's end. “What this does is eliminate 99.99999% of harmful bacteria, of food pathogens,” Gene W. Ray, president, chairman and chief executive officer of the San Diego-based company. “The FDA and USDA, they've taken all the research that has been done and come up with those numbers.” The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 76 million people are sickened each year by food-borne bacteria, such as E. coli, salmonella and listeria, with 325,000 hospitalized, and 500 deaths. In 1997, children in five states became ill with hepatitis A after eating strawberries from Mexico. That same year, Hudson Food Co. recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef tainted with E. coli. The National Institutes of Health estimates the annual cost of food-borne diseases at $5 billion to $6 billion dollars in direct medical expenditures and lost productivity. Titan already has signed contracts, pending USDA approval, with some of the biggest names in U.S. food processing: IBP, Emmpak, Cargill, ConAgra and Tyson. “Predominantly, we'll be expanding into their facilities. We'll be putting one of these into each production line,” Ray said. “And some of these places have five or six production lines.” A SureBeam processor is set to go online at Hawaii Pride in March or April to pasteurize mangoes. Ray said that operation doesn't need USDA approval because it's fruit, not meat. The SureBeam process has no effect on the taste or quality of food. Titan officials warned that electronic pasteurization does not lengthen a food's shelf life and that consumers should still be careful in handling meat as so to avoid contamination. The technology has its origins in the Cold War. The company's SureBeam electron accelerator originally won contracts in the 1980s, when the Pentagon envisioned lasers zapping incoming enemy missiles. In 1992, though, the device was adapted to the business of sterilizing packaged medical instruments. The company's technology works by charging an electronic beam that disrupts the DNA structure of the microorganisms it hits, rendering them sterile. An alternative pasteurization process now being used, called irradiation, exposes food to gamma rays from radioactive material, such as Cobalt 60. “This is not irradiation under another name,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, ranking minority member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. “The technology is totally different in that you have radioactive material vs. electricity,” said Dennis G. Olson, director of the Utilization Center for Agricultural Products at Iowa State University. “The SureBeam technology is as safe as a microwave oven,” Olson said. “Since electronic pasteurization is effective on all types of meats, poultry, fruits, vegetables and grains -- fresh or frozen -- the process will revolutionize the way we safeguard our food supply.” Food processed at the Sioux City plant, including chicken and ground beef, will be sold in test markets beginning early next year. Titan has contracts with companies that produce approximately 75% of the 8 to 9 billion pounds of ground beef produced in the United States annually. However, some controversy surrounds SureBeam. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a self-proclaimed consumer advocacy group in Washington, DC, wants labels describing beef processed by Titan's technology to read “treated by irradiation.” The advocacy group says a nationwide poll of more than 1000 people it jointly conducted found that 58% wanted an irradiation label; only 15% preferred a label declaring products to have been treated by electronic pasteurization, which is preferred by Titan. Titan provides communications and information technology to U.S. military and allied government agencies and commercial customers. For the six months ended June 30, revenues rose 20% to $168.2 million. The company has 3,100 employees. Irradiation has been used for years on limited amounts of produce, spices, poultry and other foods. But only a few small retailers have offered irradiated products. On a space mission last year, John Glenn and his fellow astronauts ate irradiated food.
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