Author Topic: FDA Recentley approves irradiation of spinach and lettuce  (Read 2499 times)

Eerongal

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CthulhuKefka

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Re: FDA Recentley approves irradiation of spinach and lettuce
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2008, 05:43:09 PM »
Guess I'm safe, I don't eat spinach and/or lettuce...or any other greens for that matter lol.

Yeah, yeah, I'm unhealthy, oh well.  :D

Eerongal

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Re: FDA Recentley approves irradiation of spinach and lettuce
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2008, 06:01:51 PM »
well, many different types of meat are irradiated to kill off bacteria, and have been for nearly 40 or so years, and in things like wheat, flour, and such things to stop insect infestation. Some foods require a special label if they are irradiated, others don't. I believe this instance (spinach/lettuce) is in the "Don't" qualification, because it uses signifigantly less than some other foods, so you probably aren't 100% free of it :P

The question remains of "What will happen as more and more food becomes exposed to this" sort of deal. According to the FDA, the food does not become radioactive (obviously), and there is no signifigant impact to taste or quality.
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Nessa

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Re: FDA Recentley approves irradiation of spinach and lettuce
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2008, 06:08:30 PM »
First thing this is from the highly liberal Huffington post. D'oh. Gotta love those comments.

Second. Third arm? Dude. I suppose if you've been eating hamburgers then you would already have one. If it hurt you. Which it doesn't.

The only thing that I would care about is if it makes food cost more. Spinach already costs more than I think it should.

And to expect farmers to document where they get their fertilizer and how they irrigate? GRRRRR. That's really excessive. They are already regulated on how their farms are set up. Documenting water and fertilizer that would be time consuming (and sometimes difficult, especially if they're trying to grow organically) and what would it solve? It makes food cost most because farmers would have yet another step (a useless one) to take their time.
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Eerongal

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Re: FDA Recentley approves irradiation of spinach and lettuce
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2008, 07:11:07 PM »
First thing this is from the highly liberal Huffington post. D'oh. Gotta love those comments.

Second. Third arm? Dude. I suppose if you've been eating hamburgers then you would already have one. If it hurt you. Which it doesn't.

The only thing that I would care about is if it makes food cost more. Spinach already costs more than I think it should.

And to expect farmers to document where they get their fertilizer and how they irrigate? GRRRRR. That's really excessive. They are already regulated on how their farms are set up. Documenting water and fertilizer that would be time consuming (and sometimes difficult, especially if they're trying to grow organically) and what would it solve? It makes food cost most because farmers would have yet another step (a useless one) to take their time.

Well, I'm not intricately familiar with the huffington post, it was just the first (decentley written, and least biased seeming) article i ran across, and if that article isn't believable to you, then there's a CNN article as well (among others like ABC, etc), detailing it as well.

Also: the third arm thing was meant to be a joke. I know they all ready irradiate meats (see previous post), however, irradiated meats are required to be marked because of the (relatively to other foods, like wheats, flours, etc) use such a high amount of radiation to do so.

I didn't bring it up to call it bad, or to strike it down. And I didn't say I was for or against it, I was just bringing it up because I wanted to see what opinions were floating around about it. Health-wise, I have no problem with it, as my food isn't radioactive and hasn't been. Flavor/nutrient wise, I'm unsure, as I know irradiating food supposedly has some impact on it (and one of the main reasons organic food makes great cooking ingredients, but that's another issue all together), but I am unsure of what great degree, I was merely trying to spur discussion on the issue.
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readerMom

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Re: FDA Recentley approves irradiation of spinach and lettuce
« Reply #5 on: October 06, 2008, 08:19:20 PM »
I think keeping people from getting food poisoning and farmers from losing their crops when we have a food scare is in everyone's best interest.
I wish somehow the general public could understand that irradiated food doesn't equal giants grasshoppers eating small towns.  The town I live in (Moab) is starting to experience a mining boom for uranium and there are all sorts of people up in arms about it, convinced that mining uranium is going to turn the entire area into a barren wasteland (oh, wait, it already is).
Of course, I studied physics in college and actually understand how it works, so I suppose puts me in the minority.

CthulhuKefka

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Re: FDA Recentley approves irradiation of spinach and lettuce
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2008, 07:15:28 AM »
I'm in the camp of "if it helps make things better and doesn't harm anyone then why not." I'm all for finding better ways to do things, even if it requires looking at the situation in a different light.  :)

Loud_G

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Re: FDA Recentley approves irradiation of spinach and lettuce
« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2008, 03:44:26 PM »
Finally!

I'm ALL for this. I'm hoping they expand the use of this method too! There are some really yummie fruits that aren't allowed into the country because of the potential for spreading disease or bugs. If we could irradiate those, then we could have guavas! MMmmmmmmm!
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happyman

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Re: FDA Recentley approves irradiation of spinach and lettuce
« Reply #8 on: October 08, 2008, 05:29:41 PM »
Yet another physicist to chime in and say that there's absolutely no way irradiated food would harm anybody.  It's not dangerous; that's why they have given the green light.  The absolutely only danger is that the radiation would decrease the nutritional value of the food being radiated.

I would like to note that the term radiation is a very generic term.  The light from the sun, the microwaves inside our microwave ovens, the heat from our bodies, and the gunk emitted by radioactive waste all fall under the umbrella term "radiation."  Their effects on biological systems vary wildly across frequency and dosage.  Reacting to "radiation" as though it were all one thing is one of our societies modern superstitions.

Ionizing radiation, which they are using here, can be one of the most dangerous forms to living creatures.  Living creatures are extremely sensitive to changes, a delicately balanced system.  The effect it has on dead biological material or non-living material is almost non-existent.  It will certainly not make the irradiated material radioactive (that is extremely difficult; the cross-section for such interactions is negligible unless you tune things very carefully.)  It will damage the biological structure of some of the molecules in the food, but not a significant fraction.

So in short, I'm all in favor of it.  It's probably more economic and safer and (get this) greener than many of the chemical methods that can be used.
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Eerongal

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Re: FDA Recentley approves irradiation of spinach and lettuce
« Reply #9 on: October 08, 2008, 06:00:46 PM »
*snip*
....The absolutely only danger is that the radiation would decrease the nutritional value of the food being radiated.....
*snip*

This, along with the impact to flavor, is my main concern.Lettuce (iceberg, specifically, one of the most common types) in particular, all ready has poor nutritional value on its own, and loses its naturally small amount of flavor easily when it comes to cooking. (I make a pretty big hobby out of cooking, so these sort of issues concern me)

The reports on it state that it will have "no signifigant impact" to either of these areas, but to me that statement silently says that there WILL be impact. The degree of this impact is what I would be concerned with.

It's been a while since my college physics classes (i certainly don't claim to be a physicist, any and all knowledge of physics, including from schools, is from a personal intrest, and not proffessional), but I know there is a certain degree of ionized background radiation that is natural, and I know that some small amounts can result in improved growth in seedlings, but living creatures can repair damages incured from small amounts of ionized radiation, and obviously something dead cannot. I just don't want to be like "Man, salads arent as good as i remembered" like 10 years from now.
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