USDA Approves Nuked Meat!

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 18:34:28 -0500
From: Leigh Hauter <lh@pressroom.com>
Subject: USDA Approves Nuked Meat!

Consumers Beware:  USDA Approves Nuked Meat!

The US meat industry can now irradiate refrigerated or frozen raw beef,
pork, lamb, as well as meat products to prevent disease rather than
solving
the problem by instituting more sanitary packing and handling
conditions,
according to a December 14, 1999 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
announcement. USDA also weakened its existing regulations for poultry,
including no longer requiring that poultry be irradiated in the package
in
which it is sold.  This means that irradiated poultry products can be
used
as ingredients in further processed products, such as TV dinners.

Unfortunately, rather than cleaning up the filthy conditions at large,
corporate farms and industrial slaughterhouses, the meat industry and
their
allies in the U.S. government are promoting food irradiation as a way to

prevent food-borne illness. Food irradiation will not solve the problems

associated with the unsanitary conditions at huge factory sized farms
from
which feces-covered animals are transported to industrialized-size
slaughtering facilities. Workers at these facilities are required to
speed-up work, for instance, "processing" as many as 300 cows an hour,
and
too few USDA inspectors are on hand to insure that procedures to prevent

contamination are followed.

USDA's Retail Labeling Requirements for Meat

While the new USDA rule does include a labeling requirement (a radura)
on
irradiated meat and poultry products sold at retail, meat served in
facilities like restaurants, hospitals or school cafeterias does not
have
to be labeled.  This means that consumer's will have no way of insuring
they the meat they eat in these establishments is not irradiated.
Consumers
of fast food burgers should be especially concerned, since hamburger
patties are a prime candidate for irradiation.

Moreover, if the FDA does not continue to require labeling, the USDA is
unlikely to require labeling. USDA is "harmonizing" all of their food
regulations with the FDA. Requirements are as follows:

1) Packaged meat products irradiated in their entirety must bear the
international radura symbol. Unfortunately, the symbol, which contains
simple petals in a broken circle is benevolent looking and its meaning
is
not widely recognized. Additionally, products must either include the
word
"irradiated" as part of the product name or must bear a statement such
as
"Treated with radiation" or "Treated by irradiation." The radura must be

placed in conjunction with the required statement, if the statement is
used. The statement is not required to be more prominent than the
declaration of ingredients and it can be anywhere on the package.

2) Unpackaged meat products irradiated in their entirety are required to

have the radura symbol and a statement "prominently and conspicuously"
displayed to purchasers either through labeling on a bulk container or
"some other appropriate device." The agency does not define what this
"other appropriate device" could be.

3) USDA is also allowing labeling statements and claims regarding the
"beneficial effects" and the purpose of irradiation.

4) Multi-ingredient products, which include an irradiated meat product,
must only reflect its inclusion in the ingredient statement on the
finished
product's label.

5) USDA eliminated two labeling requirements for poultry. The
requirements
that "letters used for the qualifying statement shall be no less than
one-third the size of the largest letter in the product name" and
second,
that the radura logo on irradiated poultry product labels be colored
green
have been eliminated.

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