Public health groups are criticizing a decision by the USDA to allow school districts to purchase irradiated meat. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Natalie Walston reports:
Transcript
Public health groups are criticizing a decision by the USDA to allow
school districts to purchase irradiated meat. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Natalie Walston reports:
Recently the U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted its ban on irradiated
ground beef in the national school lunch program. The Public Citizens’
Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program says the USDA is
putting
children’s health at risk.
It worries possible health risks to humans
from eating irradiated meat such as ground beef are not known. The
U.S.
Food and Drug Adminstration approved irradiation of raw meat and
poultry in 1997.
It concludes it’s a safe way to reduce disease-causing
microbes. But health groups say irradiation is a way to cover up the
meat industry’s sanitation failures. The government says districts
won’t be forced to serve such meat… districts will be allowed to
choose between irradiated and non-irradiated beef… and the
government suggests districts notify parents of that decision. schools
will be allowed to purchase the meat starting in January of next year.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Natalie Walston.