Skip navigation

EDUCATION CAMPAIGN READIED FOR SWITCHING ON IRRADIATION

WASHINGTON (FNS) -- For irradiation to become widely used as a food-safety measure, consumers have to want it -- but a newly planned campaign to persuade them to want it faces an uphill battle.Three food-trade associations hope to help change the tide in consumer thinking about irradiated food. As reported in the Dec. 29 issue of SN, the Food Marketing Institute, the Grocery Manufacturers of America

WASHINGTON (FNS) -- For irradiation to become widely used as a food-safety measure, consumers have to want it -- but a newly planned campaign to persuade them to want it faces an uphill battle.

Three food-trade associations hope to help change the tide in consumer thinking about irradiated food. As reported in the Dec. 29 issue of SN, the Food Marketing Institute, the Grocery Manufacturers of America and the American Farm Bureau Federation this spring will launch an education campaign directed at dispelling misinformation about irradiation that they say is turning off consumers.

"Because the Food and Drug Administration has just approved irradiation of red meat, we think it's time to start talking about it," said Claire Regan, director of scientific affairs at the GMA here. "I think it's human nature to be skeptical of a new technology. It has to be looked at as a valuable food-safety tool."

Irradiation as a technique to sterilize medical equipment has been around for decades. In the 1980s, the FDA approved the technique for killing bugs and bacteria on spices. The agency next gave approval for its use on produce, for which the process can not only reduce bacteria but retard maturation.

Despite the enthusiasm on the part of those wanting to build commercial irradiators, as well as interest in the technology from retailers and food processors, no one has taken the bold step of treating food on a large commercial scale and seeing how consumers respond. There have been small attempts, which have been greeted by bad publicity from anti-irradiation groups declaring the process destructive to nutrient content and potentially harmful to health.

"Whenever you're talking about a new technology you need to make sure consumers have all the information, so they're comfortable," said Karen Brown, senior vice president of the FMI, also here. "Of all the processes out there it is probably the most tested."

Irradiation involves exposing meat to gamma or X-rays generated by radioactive material, much like what occurs when something is X-rayed.

Details of the consumer education campaign are still in the works. It will be launched April 7 with an irradiation summit here, during which the technology will be discussed. Mike Wright, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Supervalu, Minneapolis, and Bruce Rohde, president and CEO of ConAgra, Omaha, Neb., are scheduled to be among the speakers.

The association representing farmers is interested in promoting irradiation because enhancing safety in the food supply is in everyone's interest , said Don Lipton, associate director of public relations at the AFBF here.

"It may not be the magic bullet," he said. "Anything that will enhance consumer confidence in the food supply would be beneficial to the farmer."

TAGS: Supervalu