Two sections slipped into the US Senate version of the farm bill just before its passage are attempts to encourage the expansion of irradiated food in the US diet, say consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

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Public Citizen has waged a two-year campaign to halt further approvals of irradiated food by the federal government, arguing that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not followed its own protocols when approving irradiation to treat foods, and that emerging research on chemical compounds formed when certain foods are irradiated indicate that they may be harmful to humans.


The group raised concerns over Section 442 (“Use of Approved Food Safety Technology”) and Section 1079E (“Pasteurisation”), provisions added by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to the Senate version of the farm bill (H.R. 2646) during the final hours of debate. They were, according to Public Citizen, “hidden” in a 396-page amendment that few senators had seen prior to its being considered on the Senate floor. The Senate passed the farm bill on 13 February.


Section 442 states that the Secretary of Agriculture cannot prohibit the purchase of commodities for nutrition programs it administers if those commodities have been treated with food safety technologies approved by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 


Among the technologies approved by HHS is irradiation. Programs covered include the National School Lunch Program and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966. Under current regulations, participants in those nutrition programs need not be informed that they are consuming irradiated foods.

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Section 1079E meanwhile directs the HHS Secretary to redefine pasteurisation to include any process that HHS has approved to improve food safety. Irradiation is one of those processes, says the group. Public Citizen further argues that the food irradiation industry has spent the last five years attempting to persuade the FDA to change the current labelling requirements for irradiated foods so that they could be labelled as either “cold pasteurised” or “electronic pasteurised,” but public opposition has been stiff.


Now, irradiated foods must be labelled as “treated with radiation” or “treated by irradiation”. The food irradiation industry has been advocating a change because consumers are reluctant to purchase irradiated foods.


Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, said: “These two sections must be removed by the conference committee that is now hammering out a final measure.


“The food irradiation industry is attempting to do an end-run around the regulatory agencies and sneak provisions into federal legislation to force consumers to purchase products they are rejecting now.”