October 11, 2000

Scientists at the research arm of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will work with one of the food industry's top irradiation experts, Ion Beam Applications (IBA), to further study irradiation and food safety in order to help guarantee the quality of America's food supply.

The five-year agreement between the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Food Safety Research Unit in Wyndmoor, PA, and IBA's Food Safety Division, based in Memphis, TN, follows escalating public concern over food-borne illness as well as the recent approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the use of irradiation to control harmful microorganisms in beef and other meat. The partnership brings leading researchers at ARS, whose work helped lead to the FDA's evaluation and approval of irradiation, together with technology specialists at IBA.

Under the agreement, ARS will use IBA's commercial sterilization and ionization facilities to compare the effectiveness of gamma, electron beam and X-ray sources in controlling food-borne pathogens. The program will also examine how these treatments affect the properties of food such as taste and texture, and how to optimize the benefits of the process.

"Every year 76 Million people are affected by food-borne illness and as many as 5,000 Americans die," says Dr. Donald Thayer of the USDA-ARS Food Safety Research Unit. "New technologies like irradiation -- and pasteurization before it -- can really help. Irradiation is the most tested technology in the history of the food industry, and this new research will help ensure that consumers can make informed choices about the food they eat."

"As an unbiased governmental research unit, ARS is able to provide the food industry and consumers with an unparalleled source of factual data concerning irradiated foods," says Pat Adams, President of IBA's Food Safety Division. "Providing ARS access to IBA's x- ray, e-beam and gamma facilities will help food processors make the best decisions concerning the use of irradiation to significantly increase the safety of our foods. Furthermore, the ARS-IBA agreement will allow us to confirm that food irradiation is safe and that it can help prevent illness caused by food-borne pathogens."