Schoolchildren in the national lunch program for the first time can lunch on meat sterilized through irradiation, according to USDA.
The government began allowing companies to sell irradiated meat to the public in 1999, but the treated foods were prohibited in the school lunch program, Alisa Harrison, a department spokeswoman, said recently.
The farm bill approved in May changed that, and schools will be able to purchase irradiated meat by the end of the year, Harrison said. She emphasized it’s optional.
About 25 million children participate in the federal school lunch program.
Meat companies have urged USDA to carry out such a measure, saying it will make food safer. “It’s time for USDA to acknowledge the food-safety benefits of this technology and begin purchasing irradiated ground beef products for the nation’s school children,” J. Patrick Boyle, president and CEO of the American Meat Institute, said in a statement.
“Irradiation provides an extra margin of safety, along with the many technologies already in use by the industry,” he said.
Some activists say irradiated food is unhealthy, although the World Health Organization and American Medical Association have deemed it safe.
The group Public Citizen strongly opposes it, arguing the process destroys vitamins and nutrients and can develop chemicals linked to birth defects and cancer.
Carol Tucker Foreman, director of the Consumer Federation of America’s Food Policy Institute, said she accepts the World Health Organization’s assessment, but warned irradiation is “certainly not a silver bullet” for foodborne illnesses.
Food poisonings in U.S. schools have been increasing 10 percent each year, according to an audit this year by the General Accounting Office, Congress’ investigative arm. — WLJ
