Food safety is definitely a front burner issue these days for consumers.
And if it is a key issue for consumers, it is something farm producers have to be keenly aware of.
The reality of the world today has even the most minor of food scares carried via mainstream press and of course social media to every corner of the populace.
Often cases may be blown out of proportion, but that may well be warranted given the importance of a safe food supply.
But there is another question which needs to be part of the discussion surrounding food safety, and that is what might best be done to ensure our food is safe.
We see governments increasingly pushing forward with trade deals to improve trade access from country-to-country.
That is often good news in terms of economic trade.
But, at the same time we do hand over a level of trust in terms of the food security regulations and policing in other countries. Frankly, I鈥檓 not convinced that is the wisest decision we鈥檝e made in terms of safe food on the table, but that is where international trade agreements and big business have taken us.
There is however the question of technology which may help make food safer.
In that regard that is essentially what pasteurization was in terms of milk when the process was first created. There were a lot of naysayers worrying about what pasteurizing milk might be doing to the milk, but over time the process was generally accepted and milk products were safer because of it.
We may be in that same area of debating the merits and safety of food irradiation.
鈥淭he process involves exposing the food, either packaged or in bulk, to carefully controlled amounts of ionizing radiation for a specific time to achieve certain desirable objectives,鈥� details https://uw-food-irradiation.engr.wisc.edu/Facts.html
鈥淲hen microbes present in the food are irradiated, the energy from the radiation breaks the bonds in the DNA molecules, causing defects in the genetic instructions. Unless this damage can be repaired, the organism will die or will be unable to reproduce. It matters if the food is frozen or fresh, because it takes larger radiation dose to kill microbes in frozen foods. The effectiveness of the process depends also on the organism鈥檚 sensitivity to irradiation, on the rate at which it can repair damaged DNA, and especially on the amount of DNA in the target organism:
*Parasites and insect pests, which have large amounts of DNA, are rapidly killed by an extremely low dose of irradiation.
*It takes more irradiation to kill bacteria, because they have less DNA.
*Viruses are the smallest pathogens that have nucleic acid, and they are, in general, resistant to irradiation at doses approved for foods.
鈥淚f the food still has living cells, they will be damaged or killed just as microbes are. This is a useful effect: it can be used to prolong the shelf life of fruits and vegetables because it inhibits sprouting and delays ripening.鈥�
Of course when people hear of irradiation there is a level of worry raised.
But worry does seem ill-placed for a process that has been around for decades, first used in Germany in 1958.
There are currently food products which are approved by Health Canada for irradiation, a process whereby the foods are exposed to alpha or gamma rays which may kill E. coli, salmonella and other microbes, as well as some parasites and moulds.
And the process does little to affect the food itself, at least according the website.
鈥淵es, the foods are not changed in nutritional value and they don鈥檛 become dangerous as a result of irradiation. At irradiation levels approved for use on foods, levels of the vitamin thiamine are slightly reduced, but not enough to result in vitamin deficiency. There are no other significant changes in the amino acid, fatty acid, or vitamin content of food. In fact, the changes induced by irradiation are so minimal that it is not easy to determine whether or not a food has been irradiated.鈥�
E. coli is certainly one of the food safety concerns, especially in meat, consumers have, so a process which can kill the bacteria should be embraced.
While Canada allows irradiation on products such as flour, spices, onions and potatoes it does not on meats, even though dozens of countries allow it, including the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has allowed the use of irradiation on beef for almost two decades and recently approved the use of irradiation on lobster, shrimp and crab.
It would seem we are at the point where food safety concerns should have paved the way for broader use of irradiation and we should move in that direction.
Calvin Daniels is Assistant Editor with Yorkton This Week.
