Food Pasteuriation: The Labelling Of Food Irradiated Food

Whenever you buy a packet of milk, you may see the word “pasteurised” printed in huge font on the milk carton. Pasteurisation is the process of using heat to kill the bacteria and certain micro-organisms in milk. Most of us may know what is pasteurization, how about food irradiation? Food irradiation, otherwise known was cold pasteurization, is a similar process as pasteurization, instead of using heat, it uses ionising radiations to eliminate the bacteria and pathogens found on the food. However, we hardly see any irradiated food being labelled or some people may not even know the label for irradiated food. Even though the process of food irradiation is approved by Food and Drugs Administration, but many irradiated food has been kept off the

This is one of the main reasons as to why irradiated food has been kept off the shelves despite the fact that Food and Drugs Administration has approved food irradiation (Halsey, 1997). All companies are profit driven, therefore the fear of irradiated food demonstrated by the consumers will stop most companies from selling or producing too many irradiated food, for the fear that there is a low demand of irradiated food, leading to low profits earned by them or even losses incurred to them. There is also a lack of awareness about food irradiation causing people to be sceptical about food irradiation (Andrews, 2011). People often link radiation to nuclear plants and power, causing them to be afraid that the food will be radioactive which will cause more harm than good to the body. Contrary to popular belief, food irradiation does not cause food to be radioactive; hence it will not impose harmful health issues on people (Brennand, 1995). Though food irradiation will affect the way the food will taste by a little just like how pasteurised milk tastes different from unpasteurised milk, irradiated food is still the same as it is before, just clearer of bacteria and pathogens. This lack of awareness will then lead to the idea of having labelling is a warning that

Some people may feel that with food irradiation in place, farm houses and slaughter houses will be able to slack in terms of keeping the environment of the areas clean (Mercola, 2011). In their opinion, food irradiation will cover up for the filthy environment in farm houses and slaughter houses. However, a study has been done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where the results show that the decrease of foodborne diseases in current times as compared to the past is due to cleaner methods of slaughtering in slaughter houses. This shows that food irradiation is not an excuse used by farm houses and slaughter houses to have a filthy environment. Instead, we have even cleaner conditions of farm houses and slaughter houses now which has contributed to the decrease in food contamination cases and number of food borne diseases as compared to the