FDA Says Viruses Safe for Treating Meat

Forbes.com ^ | 08.18.2006 | ANDREW BRIDGES

[GeronL]

viruses??

OK.. I eat cold cuts a lot but this is sounding weird. I hope they tested it on humans.

[stands2reason]

I don't particularly trust viruses. They are alien weird.

[dandelion]

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...

[Jeff Chandler]

Why don't they just irradiate it?

[Thinkin' Gal]

The viruses are the first to win FDA approval for use as a food additive

I think we are safer with Clark Griswold's non-nutritive semi-osmotic cereal varnish.

[REDWOOD99]

My baloney has a first name - it's B-I-R-D. My baloney has a second name - its F-L-U.

[NRA2BFree]

that kill hundreds of people a year

I wasn't aware of this. Do they ever tell us the truth about anything?

[NRA2BFree]

We've gotten to the point where the earth is so perfect, we are now spraying our meat with viruses?

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)

[mysterio]

Irradiation is the way to go. Irradiated milk often doesn't have to be refrigerated until it's opened. And it's totally safe.

[mysterio]

Why don't they just irradiate it?

Because people are uninformed, and the radiation boogeyman sacres them. Irradiated food is very safe.

[Jeff Chandler]

Irradiated food is very safe.

If they were serious about food borne illness, they would insist upon irradiation. Of course, then there's the Hygiene Hypothesis...

[neverdem]

I wasn't aware of this. Do they ever tell us the truth about anything?

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

[Arthalion]

The problem with irradiation is that its benefit ends the moment the meat leaves the irradiation machine. If any bacteria survive the irradiation process or if the meat is improperly handled after the irradiating is completed, the consumer can still be exposed to potentially deadly bacteria. By utilizing a live defense like a bacteria killing virus, the meat can be protected from pathogens from the slaughtering process all the way through the cooking process.

I'm not really concerned about the fact that viruses are being sprayed onto food we're going to eat...using viruses to fight disease really isn't all that different from the virus based vaccines that we've been injecting into our children for the better part of a century.

My concern is this: If the viruses are not completely neutralized during the cooking process, what effect will it have on the beneficial bacteria that naturally live in our intestines? I'm not so keen on eating "sterile" meat if raging diarrhea is a potential side effect.

[Squeako]

Birds eat the lizards, snakes eat the birds, monkeys eat the snakes, winter kills the monkeys...I think we're all good.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I'm not really concerned about the fact that viruses are being sprayed onto food we're going to eat...using viruses to fight disease really isn't all that different from the virus based vaccines that we've been injecting into our children for the better part of a century.

There is a itsy bitsy difference between tickling an immune system and massacring bacteria. Bite bacteria back.

[cavador]

Soon when you go to Macca's ,instead of asking if you want fries they'll say "Do you want virus with that?"

[HiTech RedNeck]

"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

[Straight Vermonter]

I think we both know the answer to that.

[spunkets]

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.