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IRRADIATION INITIATIVES ARE LINKED TO PROPER EDUCATION

ROSEMONT, Ill. (FNS) -- When consumers understand the purpose of food irradiation, they tend to accept the process, but gaining that acceptance will require major education and marketing initiatives on the part of meat processors and retailers."The bottom line? Come big or stay home," is how one marketing expert characterized the challenge, at a conference on irradiation for red meat.The meat industry

ROSEMONT, Ill. (FNS) -- When consumers understand the purpose of food irradiation, they tend to accept the process, but gaining that acceptance will require major education and marketing initiatives on the part of meat processors and retailers.

"The bottom line? Come big or stay home," is how one marketing expert characterized the challenge, at a conference on irradiation for red meat.

The meat industry should not start irradiating meat unless it intends to adopt a "smart and responsible" marketing program that addresses both the benefits and risks that customers may perceive, said Sheila McKay Courington, senior research executive with the Chicago marketing firm of Wirthlin Worldwide.

Another speaker at the meeting, Christine Bruhn, professor at the University of California at Davis' Center for Consumer Research, said microbiological hazards in food concerns consumers more than pesticides, chemicals and packaging concerns.

"Don't expect customers to say they want irradiated meat," Bruhn cautioned, "but they do want pathogen-free meat. The public is ready, It's time for the industry to make that choice available."

The irradiation conference, sponsored by the American Meat Institute Foundation and the National Center for Food Safety Technology, was AMI's first after the Food and Drug Administration approved meat irradiation in December.

Dean Cliver, professor, food safety, at the University of California at Davis, added that irradiation is the "only known means of control" for some meat-borne pathogens, including salmonella in poultry and E. coli in meat, and could become the critical control point for meat safety.

Cliver called on industry to make both consumers and retailers aware of the many health and scientific organizations that have endorsed meat irradiation.

Courington pointed out that widely reported incidents of food-related illness can undermine public confidence in the food supply, increasing the risk of negative perceptions for meat processors that choose not to irradiate their product.

Trying to hide the fact that meat has been irradiated, either with vague wording or tiny print on labels, would be a major mistake, she also warned. Irradiation "must be dealt with in an honest, straight-forward way." But, she added, that does not mean an extensive, technical presentation.

"Scientists cannot write education pieces for the general public. The public wants to know what it's going to do for me."

To that end, the meat industry will need to provide education that is meaningful to the consumer about the benefits of irradiation, and will have to address consumers' fears and concerns raised by the connections radiation has with cancer treatments and nuclear materials, Courington said.