Did You Know?
The Bacteria That Time Forgot
If you thought irradiation was the be-all and end-all to food sanitation you have another think coming. Biologists at the Institute for Genomic Research in Bethesda, MD recently reported they have decoded the 3,284,156 letters of genetic message in the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans, a Greco-Latin amalgam meaning weird, radiation-resistant, berry-shaped bug. Seems the microbe has been showing up in medical autoclaves and food irradiation chambers ever since 1956, after it was isolated from cans of meat that had been sterilized with gamma radiation. Apparently, while humans are unable to withstand 1000 rads of radiation, these buggers survive exposure to 12 million rads, knitting together its DNA even after the genome has been blasted into more than 100 pieces. Fortunately, the bacterium is entirely nonpathogenic.
The Sweet Smell of Irradiation
Now that the USDA has given its approval to the irradiation of raw meat, researchers are beginning to examine what effects irradiation might have on such organoleptic qualities as aroma. At Iowa State University, for example, researchers for the Food Safety Consortium have examined the effects irradiation will have on cooked pork sausage in hopes of determining how best to package and market the “new” product. What they found was that irradiating cooked sausage in aerobic packaging has a tendency to reduce the product’s “meaty” aroma, replacing it instead with something best described as wet wool or wet hair. This problem was solved by irradiating the sausage in a vacuum packaging; which, however, had the unfortunate consequence of turning the meat a pinkish, reddish color. The FSC’s proposed solution: educating consumers that in cooked pork sausage, the color pink is not a bad thing.
New Salmonella/Citrus Data
The FDA is reportedly in the process of reassessing planned safety rules for makers of orange juice due to new evidence showing that Salmonella may be able to penetrate the skin of the fruit. Regulators have been trying to develop a set of rules for several years that would require U.S. juice makers to thoroughly clean raw fruit to make juice safer for consumers. Regulators had initially believed that harmful bacteria such as Salmonella or E. coli were “not reasonably likely” to be found inside oranges, and that even if the bacteria did burrow inside the fruit, the acid would likely destroy it. Recent FDA studies, however, indicate that bacteria can be drawn into healthy-looking fruit through the scar left by the stem, or through tiny cracks or holes, and that the bugs can survive beneath the peel. There is no word yet on when any amended set of new FDA rules will be released.
New Government Food Safety Agency!??
Does America need another government agency? Does the food industry need yet another federal regulatory body? That’s the question the Clinton Administration is presently reviewing as it looks into the possibility of creating a single food safety agency to regulate meat, poultry, seafood, fruits, vegetables, and other foods. The new agency would be cobbled together from the jumble of regulatory units scattered across the USDA, FDA, EPA, the Commerce Department and the Centers for Disease Control, report administration insiders. The President’s Council on Food Safety was recently quoted as saying in a statement that, “Organizational changes under review include strengthening coordination and leadership, streamlining and/or consolidating responsibilities and the structure of current agencies, and establishing a new, stand-alone consolidated food safety agency.” The President’s Council would love to hear from anyone with an opinion on said issue. As would your congressman or senator, we are sure.