Irradiation as a Preservative: Is It Safe by Loring A. Windblad

One distinct advantage of food irradiation over more traditional methods of food processing is a longer shelf life for fresh foods, allowing wider distribution of high-quality, nondecaying fruits and vegetables. For example, irradiation can prolong the shelf life of strawbernes for up to 15 days. It can also extend the shelf life of various frozen foods. Given the current ban on several health-damaging chemical fumigants, insecticides and fungicides, irradiation is a useful method for facilitating the shipment of food products into Canada. But only certain foods are permitted by Health Canada to be irradiated, namely: potatoes, onions, wheat flour, whole wheat flour, whole or ground spices and seasonings.

Public acceptance lags behind

In many countries the public remains skeptical of food irradiation, often because of a poor understanding of its value in providing a safe food supply, relative to other processing methods. In a similar fashion, when milk pasteurization was first introduced, many consumers vehemently objected thinking that its goodness "would be destroyed by heating." Yet food irradiation is designed to erradicate microbes and food-poisoning organisms that contaminate many foods and endanger those who eat them. The World Health Organization (WHO) calls food irradiation "a sound food processing technology which offers consumers food products with an added margin of safety."

Anti-nuclear activists in the U.S. have caused much upheaval and delayed the opening of a food irradiation plant in Florida, with sensational and adverse press coverage. Many news reports choose to ignore the full weight of scientific evidence in support of food irradiation, impeding rather than advancing progress in food safety.

There remains a large body of expert opinion, including scientific evidence, which maintains that irradiation is harmful because it not only removes the harmful organisms but the beneficial organisms as well, and may in fact destroy some of the nutritional values of the foods thus irradiated. While I maintain the position that the anti-nuclear activists are 100% dead wrong in their “actions”, their “opinion” is 100% “right on” – in my opinion, after carefully considering all the evidence pro and con, my personal opinion is: irradiation, at this stage of development, is not safe, nor is it safe to consume foods which have been irradiated as a preservation method.

In fact, our bodies require many of the micro-organisms which are killed via irradiation just in order to digest and absorb the nutritional values of foods which are irradiated. I recommend that, if your diet consists of any amount of irradiated foods, you research “Greens” products in general and that you seriously consider adding a “Greens” product to your daily diet. I recommend the newest, and only 100% vegetarian, native and natural greens product on the market today -- Bio88+ -- which is found here.

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BIO:

Loring Windblad has studied nutrition and exercise for more than 40 years, is a published author and freelance writer. His latest business endeavor is at
http://www.organicgreens.us

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