Irradiation in Food
Food borne illnesses increase dramatically every year, causing death and financial waste in their wake (Shea N.P). Irradiation is the solution but skeptic criticism is implanting fear in the minds of uninformed consumers, consequently preventing the mountains of advantage this new technology has to offer. Skeptics would wait for thousands of so-called "new" studies to tell us the same thing the old studies told us rather than save lives now. In this paper I will show you that, despite these quarrels over little imperfections, irradiation is a highly regulated, safe way to destroy harmful microorganisms in food and that all proven advantages of food irradiation tower over the few baseless fears of ignorant critics. Each year nearly 80,000,000 people become ill, over 320,000 are hospitalized, and over 5,000 die, all due to food borne illnesses (Robertson N.P). According to Dr. Katherine Shea, a Professor at the University of North Carolina, the Nicholas School of the Environment, and the Medical School at Duke University, these numbers are increasing dramatically each year and the irradiation of food is by far the best solution (Shea N.P). Food irradiation can prevent millions of these food borne illnesses. Irr
With the safety food irradiation provides, the United States is determined to keep the irradiation process completely safe. Shea states that Under the 1958 Food Additives Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic act of 1938, the U.S. congress put food irradiation under FDA regulation by including it as a "food preservative" (Shea N.P). This means that food irradiation falls under every regulatory process the FDA has in action (Robertson N.P). According to Shea, petitioners for the use of irradiation also have to pass FDA technical requirements which include dose limitation and irradiation conditions. Shea also writes that FDA regulation must ensure nutritional value, and radiological, toxicological, and microbiologic safety of food (Shea N.P). So far the FDA has only permitted 4 types of irradiation. They are exposure to cobalt 60, exposure to cesium 137, electron particle bombarding, and x-raying (Robertson N.P). The USDA also partakes in regulating and inspecting the irradiation process. It is their responsibility to ensure the safety of using irradiation for parasite and insect prevention. The USDA is also responsible for all meat and poultry inspection, so the safety of irradiated meat and poultry ends up being checked over by two different agencies, the USDA
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Approximate Word count = 869
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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