001028 FDA Criticized For Food Irradiation

Washington - The Food and Drug Administration should withdraw its approval of food irradiation to kill bacteria, said the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, claiming that the agency based its acceptance of the technology on faulty studies.

Joined by the Cancer Prevention Coalition and several environmental protection organizations, Public Citizen and the other groups said there were numerous public health threats posed by applying ionizing radiation to food. The groups documented their charges in a lengthy report that “reveals that FDA has failed in its mandate to protect consumers,” said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program.

She claimed the food industry is trying to remove any evidence that food has been irradiated from product labeling, and noted that such a proposal was included in the Agriculture Appropriations bill currently being considered by a House and Senate conference. Mark Worth, a researcher for Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, said that FDA's approval of irradiating food products over the years has been based on at least 100 studies that the agency's own advisers determined were faulty or inconclusive about safety.

In 1982, an internal FDA task force concluded that only five of 409 studies on irradiating food supported it as safe and effective technology, said Worth. But many of those same studies have been used again and again to support approval of irradiation, he said.

“For 17 years, the FDA has knowingly and systematically ignored its own testing protocols--protocols that must be followed before irradiated food can be legalized for human consumption,” said Worth. Radiation is considered a food additive, which gives the FDA jurisdiction over the use of radiation on foods. The agency first approved using radiation as a bactericide in 1983, saying it could be used on spices. Since that time, the FDA has approved irradiation of pork, fruit, vegetables, red meat and poultry. In July, the agency granted approval to irradiate fresh eggs.

Public Citizen and others have protested these approvals along the way, calling for public hearings, but has been rebuffed. The latest petition was submitted in August, asking for a hearing on the egg approval.

They noted that the company seeking to irradiate eggs did not submit any of its own toxicology studies. Instead, it relied on published data--in some cases the same data that had been previously labeled as flawed or inconclusive-- to get approval.

The Cancer Prevention Coalition and Public Citizen are calling on FDA to rescind all irradiation approvals granted since 1983, for a Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General investigation of FDA's role in regulating the irradiation process, and for an overhaul of farming, ranching, and processing practices to encourage greater sanitation.

The National Food Processors Association said that Public Citizen's charge that FDA has not acted appropriately is “just plain wrong.” In a statement, Rhona Appelbaum, executive vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs for the group said, “The process by which FDA determines the safety of irradiation for use of various foods is both science-based and rigorous.”

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