Wanted: silver bullet

Here is the link to the final report of the International Lettuce and Leafy Greens Food Safety Research Conference, presented recently by United's Dave Gombas to the USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service.

From the report's general recommendations:

Research Scaled to Real World. All participants felt that research should be conducted on a pilot-scale or field operational basis and that we must get beyond the classical laboratory research of the past. It was noted that research on microbial ecology and field interventions should focus on actual field conditions and what the pathogens are doing, not what they can be made to do.
Access to Private Sector Data. Critical information exists in both industry-conducted data collection and industry-funded research. These private sector operational data must be mined in such a way as to allow access with confidentiality. Collaborative partnerships between industry, academia and government must be facilitated to ensure research is focused on solutions for real world practices and data gaps.

Kill Step Technology. While there is a crucial need for a pasteurization process for lettuce and leafy greens, it is recognized that no current technology has a significant potential to accomplish this in the near future. Therefore, significant expenditure of research funds here is unlikely to result in a meaningful intervention until an innovative approach is found.

TK: Does irradiation offer "significant potential to accomplish" a kill step for lettuce and leafy greens in the near future? Apparently not, say the authors of this report. However, even if irradiation were a kill step, would it be used? Here is an excerpt from commentary by Michael Osterholm is director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.

"In the end, there is only one absolute measure to address this issue: food irradiation. This process, which primarily uses an electron gun -- just like the one in your TV, except at higher power -- that turns electricity into an energy that safely and cost-effectively kills bacteria like E. coli. It does so without significantly changing the flavor, color or nutrient content of the food. Routine irradiation of meat and poultry would do for those food commodities what pasteurization did for milk: make them safe. In the end, that's all that matters, particularly for those who have lost loved ones needlessly to E.coli infection."