"Popeye would approve"

Is the produce industry for or against irradiation for food safety purposes? There is a difference of opinion on that point, but a "taste test" at a Congressional hearing did its part to minimize the the taste difference between irradiated and "conventional" produce. From coverage in the The Des Moines Register, by Phillip Brasher:

Irradiated food was put to the congressional taste test and passed.Two U.S. House members holding a hearing on food safety Wednesday took bites of fresh spinach that had been zapped at the Sadex Corp. irradiation plant in Sioux City."No difference," said Bart Stupak, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight subcommittee."No difference," agreed Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill. "I think Popeye would approve."The leaves they munched on were brought to the committee by Iowa State University professor Dennis Olson, who argues that the widespread use of irradiation could make food safer.Consumers will have to take the congressmen's word for it that the spinach was OK to eat. The Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve the commercial use of irradiation on fruits, vegetables and many other foods.Irradiating food kills harmful E. coli, salmonella and other harmful bacteria. Sadex uses an electron-beam device to treat food.Proper cooking also can kill the bacteria. However, spinach and other types of produce are commonly eaten raw and have been linked to widespread food-poisoning outbreaks in recent years."When we have widespread use of irradiation of our food supply, it will also be listed as a pillar of public health," said Olson, an expert on irradiation. He compared the technology to pasteurizing milk with heat.Irradiation of ground beef, which has been approved for commercial use for eight years, has not caught on with consumers, however.

TK: Here is a link to all the testimony at the hearing, and the House Web site also offer a video link. Among.those testifying was Dennis Wegman, chief executive officer of Wegman's, who advocated that the FDA should allow produce to be irradiated. Olson of Iowa State brought in irradiated lettuce, tomatoes and asparagus, and their "conventional" counterparts, including lettuce, tomatoes and asparagus, along with conventional versions of the same foods. (Conventional: a word with elastic meaning). Brascher notes that the FDA has been considering to approve the wider use of irradiation since 1999, and FDA officials also testified at the hearing and were grilled about the status of rulemaking.