Posted on 10/10/2006 9:22:35 PM PDT by Coleus
Popeye the Sailor Man would have approved of the green, leafy spinach gobbled up by Sadex Corp. officials early Wednesday morning. Popeye definitely would not have approved of the spinach if he could have seen it under a microscope before it underwent irradiation -- the spinach contained 5 million colonies of E.coli bacteria per gram.
"You would have been better off to have a cow come and dump on it," said David Corbin, chairman and chief executive officer of the Sadex Corp. Officials at the Sadex Corp. irradiated the highly contaminated spinach at the Sioux City plant, 2650 Murray St.
Then they ate it like candy.
"It was very good," Corbin said. "I didn't notice any difference." Harlan Clemmons, president and chief operating officer of the Sadex Corp., agreed with Corbin.
"It had a good crunch to it," Clemmons said. "I didn't even have to put much dressing on it." Although the spinach started the day at 5 million colonies of E.coli bacteria per gram, after irradiation, it had 50 to 70 colonies per gram -- not enough to make humans sick.
"That's why Harlan and I were highly confident in our spinach-eating ability," Corbin said. The Sadex officials performed this spinach-eating feat to demonstrate their confidence in electronic pasteurization (irradiation) technology for ready-to-eat foods. Electron-beam irradiation works on the same principle as a giant television set. Electrons ride across a radio frequency in two beams aimed at the product, killing dangerous microbes.
Irradiation could have prevented recent infections of E.coli bacteria linked to contaminated spinach, executives said. Sadex officials want the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve the application of irradiation for use on ready-to-eat foods such as spinach. Irradiation technology is used in about 40 countries worldwide. In the United States, the only obstacle preventing irradiation of ready-to-eat foods is the FDA, Sadex officials said.
"Irradiation is a well-known and FDA-approved technology used on animal feed, meat and poultry," Corbin said. "This technology can prevent food-borne illness, and we believe it is a great way to protect the nation's food supply. Had the nation's supply of spinach been irradiated, the most recent E.coli scare could have been minimized."
Paul Driskell, managing director of government and regulatory affairs for the Sadex Corp., said the FDA has not approved of irradiation for ready-to-eat foods simply because of "bureaucratic inaction." There are also consumer misconceptions about irradiation -- that it is not safe or that it zaps the nutrition out of food.
That is simply not true, Sadex executives said, and they have mountains of independent research to back up their claims. As of Wednesday afternoon, neither Corbin nor Clemmons were sick, proving they had as much brains as Popeye had buff.
Parboiling in the space age.
The radiation obviously affects what your eating. It wouldn't be done if it didn't. The article seems to imply that they don't care.
...
This is RIDICULOUS. Yes and all the bags of spinach have millions of e.coli colonies per gram on a daily basis?? LOL He said something about cow dung but it's not coming from the cow that's for sure.
You could make the same claim about any process that kills germs in food or water, from cooking to chlorination. Yet we have been doing those things for a long time without being plagued by any super bugs.
I get the impression that they contaminated the sample deliberately to demonstrate the effectiveness of the process.
I know that because they want to make a show. It's fine. They can irradiate the spinach so long as it gets a label.
All indications are, that the "bugs" are getting nastier and harder to kill.
Okay. You eat the all-natural spinach, I'll eat the electric spinach. We'll see who gets the tummy ache.
CFA's Carol Tucker Foreman
I'm not opposed to irradiating ground beef. If I were supplying a nursing home, I'd probably make sure that the meat came in irradiated. My concern is that I don't want a system that says you can have fecal matter all over it, and then irradiate it. Irradiated poop won't make you sick, but it's still poop. ...
There are some worker safety concerns with irradiation. There are some environmental safety concerns. It's very expensive, and if it's not used exactly right, it makes the meat taste really bad. Those last two are important reasons why irradiation hasn't been adopted more widely. ..
How about not fertilizing the spinach with cow dung. How about not letting the spinach touch cow feces when it is being processed. This would be a very effective way of reducing Ecoli and no investment in equipment would be necessary.
bttt
But what's the alternative to killing them? Appeasement?
There are a few people on here who keep calling all vegetables that aren't processed, boiled to death, and canned organic.
Healthy, undeniably, but tasty? I eat it all the time for the health benefits, but the bitter taste needs a strong salad dressing or some other food to cover it up.
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