Why We Don't Like Food Irradiation

1. Irradiation damages food by breaking up molecules and releasing pieces of the molecules, called free radicals. They bounce around in the food, damage vitamins and enzymes, and combine with existing chemicals (e.g. pesticides) in the food to form new chemicals, called unique radiolytic products (URPs).

2. Some of these URPs are known toxins (benzene, formaldehyde, lipid peroxides) and some are unique to irradiated foods. Scientists have not studied the long-term effect of these new chemicals in our diet. Therefore, we cannot assume irradiated foods are safe to eat.

3. When the FDA approved irradiation for fruits and vegetables, they did not use any animal studies. The FDA used a theoretical calculation of the number of URPs in one 7.5 ounce serving (e.g., a large apple). They did not consider the fact that people may eat several times that amount of irradiated food for a lifetime, and the increased work the liver must do to fight off carcinogenic and mutagenic URPs from the irradiated food.

4. Irradiated foods can lose 5% to 80% of many vitamins (A, C, E, K and B complex). The amount of loss depends on the dose of irradiation and the length of storage time.

5. Irradiation weakens or destroys the natural digestive enzymes found in raw foods. This means the human body has to work harder to digest them. (Enzymes are what make a raw peach or pear eventually digest itself and turn into a puddle of liquid. Irradiation slows this process or stops it altogether.) The FDA already allows irradiated fruits and vegetables to be labeled "fresh".

6. lf unlabeled, raw foods that have been irradiated look like fresh foods, but nutritionally they are like cooked foods, with decreased vitamins and enzymes.

7. When high—energy electron beams are used, trace amounts of radioactivity may be created in the food.

Vol 19 Issue 4 page 5