Food Irradiation

Food irradiation remains a little, known and marginal practice in Europe. The European Parliament has only approved spices, vegetable seasonings, and dried aromatic herbs to be irradiated. Until the European Council also approves this list of ingredients, European countries may irradiate other products legally.

This however is slowly changing, the push by the food industry to expand irradiation is part of the effort to make food production more globalized. Globalization of the food industry leads to food produced for the cheapest price possible by facilities owned by big international companies and then sold long distances. Food irradiation is a part of this plan because it enables food to be shipped longer distances and stay on shelves longer.

The European Food Safety Agency has been working on an opinion on this technology which will likely pave the way for a major expansion of the list of authorized products and doses allowed. Unfortunately, the evolution of international regulation in the past decades led the Codex Alimentarius Commission (founded in 1963 by the FAO and WHO to develop food standards) to change its standards for food irradiation, allowing an increased dosage to be used. This is encouraging more countries to permit the marketing of irradiated foods for a wide range of products, often without dosage limitation.

Indeed, the fact that the Codex Alimentarius allows food irradiation at virtually unlimited doses presents a risk to countries daring to refuse imports of food because they are irradiated. This could lead to a complaint before the Dispute Settlement Body of WTO, which could then lead to trade retaliation, as was the case concerning Community measures prohibiting imports of meat from animals treated with hormones in the late 90s.

Food & Water Europe is urging policy makers to consider food irradiation legislation with a comprehensive vision and not only from a health and food safety angle, but also in the context of expanding international food trade and international standardization. The risks associated with food irradiation include health risks, socio-economic risks and environmental risks, to find out more about these risks, read our letter to the European Commissioners and the European Food Safety Agency.

Help protect small and medium size farmers, as well as consumers, by opposing irradiated food.

Update: EFSA came out with a new opinion on food irradiation safety recently and we responded with a joint letter/press release.