“Irradiating meat is the meat industry’s answer to filthy meat processing

practices that leave meat contaminated”: The union representing federal food inspectors joined a coalition opposing food irradiation (brokered by Public Citizen and including the Center for Food Safety, the Campaign for Biodemocracy,

Friends of the Earth, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the Nuclear Information

and Resource Service, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine). The union is concerned that irradiation is central to a meat industry initiative to police itself and displace the role of federal inspectors. “Although the meat industry claims that irradiation will make

food safer, the health impacts of eating irradiated food are uncertain. New chemicals called

unique radiolytic products are created in the irradiation process. No testing has been done

to identify these chemicals, much less to determine if they are safe for human

consumption. Evidence indicates that chromosomal damage (among other problems) could

occur as the result of consuming irradiated food. Further, meat that is treated using

irradiation often gives off a very strange odor.”