Posted on 08/18/2006 10:46:14 PM PDT by neverdem
Associated Press
A mix of bacteria-killing viruses can be safely sprayed on cold cuts, hot dogs and sausages to combat common microbes that kill hundreds of people a year, federal health officials said Friday in granting the first-ever approval of viruses as a food additive.
The combination of six viruses is designed to be sprayed on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, including sliced ham and turkey, said John Vazzana, president and chief executive officer of manufacturer Intralytix Inc.
The special viruses called bacteriophages are meant to kill strains of the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium, the Food and Drug Administration said in declaring it safe to use on ready-to-eat meats prior to their packaging.
The viruses are the first to win FDA approval for use as a food additive, said Andrew Zajac, of the regulatory agency's office of food additive safety.
The bacterium the viruses target can cause a serious infection called listeriosis, primarily in pregnant women, newborns and adults with weakened immune systems. In the United States, an estimated 2,500 people become seriously ill with listeriosis each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those, 500 die.
Luncheon meats are particularly vulnerable to Listeria since once purchased, they typically aren't cooked or reheated, which can kill harmful bacteria like Listeria, Zajac said.
The preparation of bacteriophages - the name is Greek for "bacteria-eater" - attacks only strains of the Listeria bacterium and not human or plant cells, the FDA said.
"As long as it used in accordance with the regulations, we have concluded it's safe," Zajac said. People normally come into contact with phages through food, water and the environment, and they are found in our digestive tracts, the FDA said.
Consumers won't be aware that meat and poultry products have been treated with the spray, Zajac added. The Department of Agriculture will regulate the actual use of the product.
The viruses are grown in a preparation of the very bacteria they kill, and then purified. The FDA had concerns that the virus preparation potentially could contain toxic residues associated with the bacteria. However, testing did not reveal the presence of such residues, which in small quantities likely wouldn't cause health problems anyway, the FDA said.
"The FDA is applying one of the toughest food-safety standards which they have to find this is safe," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group. "They couldn't approve this product if they had questions about its safety."
Intralytix, based in Baltimore, first petitioned the FDA in 2002 to allow the viruses to be used as a food additive. It has since licensed the product to a multinational company, which intends to market it worldwide, said Intralytix president Vazzana. He declined to name the company but said he expected it to announce its plans within weeks or months.
Intralytix also plans to seek FDA approval for another bacteriophage product to kill E. coli bacteria on beef before it is ground, Vazzana said.
Scientists have long studied bacteriophages as a bacteria-fighting alternative to antibiotics.
OK.. I eat cold cuts a lot but this is sounding weird. I hope they tested it on humans.
I don't particularly trust viruses. They are alien weird.
Normally I don't like to name my food before I eat it, but this is sure making me want to introduce two new pets to the back forty:
Sir Loin and Mr. T-Bone
and let's not forget our friend, Mr. Feral Pig. Tasty, and probably less likely to be filled with viral meat.
Viral Meat?
We've gotten to the point where the earth is so perfect, we are now spraying our meat with viruses?
Waaaaay counterintuitive...
Why don't they just irradiate it?
I think we are safer with Clark Griswold's non-nutritive semi-osmotic cereal varnish.
My baloney has a first name - it's B-I-R-D. My baloney has a second name - its F-L-U.
I wasn't aware of this. Do they ever tell us the truth about anything?
Now that you put it that way, it does sound pretty weird. LOL! Can you picture someone ordering a burger saying, "I'll take two squirts of virus A and one squirt of virus B on that burger." Talk about weird. ;o)
Irradiation is the way to go. Irradiated milk often doesn't have to be refrigerated until it's opened. And it's totally safe.
If they were serious about food borne illness, they would insist upon irradiation. Of course, then there's the Hygiene Hypothesis...
There's too much to tell. You need to know what to ask to whom. Here's a start.
http://www.cdc.gov/pulsenet/pathogens_pages/listeria_monocytogenes.htm
Birds eat the lizards, snakes eat the birds, monkeys eat the snakes, winter kills the monkeys...I think we're all good.
There is a itsy bitsy difference between tickling an immune system and massacring bacteria. Bite bacteria back.
Soon when you go to Macca's ,instead of asking if you want fries they'll say "Do you want virus with that?"
"So nat'ralists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey,
And these have smaller fleas that bite 'em,
And so proceed ad infinitum." -Jonathan Swift
I think we both know the answer to that.
Historically it hasn't worked, it caused diarea. The E. coli stuff here will also do the same thing. There will also be mutations.
They should put this stuff only on only certain foods, label it as such and leave the regular food alone.
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