FDA wants to relax rules on irradiated foods

The FDA announced today that the Agency may relax rules on labeling irradiated foods, and even suggested some irradiated products could be labeled as "pasteurized, " "cold-pasteurized," or other alternative terms than "irradiated." FDA's proposal (PDF) admits that in focus groups and polls, consumers were not buying the change in terminology, stating "Research indicates that many consumers regard substitute terms for irradiation to be misleading." Gee, I wonder why.

According to a CNN report, the proposed rule would require companies to label irradiated food only when the radiation treatment causes a 'material change' to the product. Examples include changes to the taste, texture, smell or shelf life of a food. The Center for Food Safety and Food and Water Watch released a report last year, Food Irradiation: A Gross Failure (PDF), exploring these very changes in irradiated food, finding that "published research on irradiated foods repeatedly finds that they smell rotton, metalic, bloody, burnt, grassy and generally off. The taste was described as like sulfer, singed hair, burnt feathers, burnt oil and rancid fat. " Mmmmm. Yum. That sounds pretty label-worthy to me.

Besides the obvious yuck factor, serious questions linger as to whether this food is safe. CFS's report also cites several scientific studies that show irradiating foods can form volatile toxic chemicals, such as benzene and toulene; causes stunted growth in lab animals fed irradiated foods; and a startling 2001 study that linked colon tumor promotion in lab rats to new chemical compounds that are found only in irradiated foods, known as 2-alkylcyclobutanones (2-ACBs).

But FDA doesn't want to talk about those changes. That might confuse us or give rise to what the agency terms "inappropriate consumer anxiety." Though FDA repeatedly states in the proposal that consumers need to be given information in order to make informed purchasing decisions, FDA goes on to assert that "If the removal of explicit language indicating that a food has been irradiated causes people to buy irradiated products that they previously avoided, and if these products have lower prices or higher quality, then some consumers will benefit from the removal of information." Benefit from a lack of information we relied on to choose what we eat and feed to our families? Now I'm confused.

It seems pretty obvious who really benefits from a lack of labeling. Using recent food-contamination scandals as a springboard, irradiation has been touted as the solution to food-borne illness in everything from spinach to deli meats. But a good, hard look at the systemic food and agricultural problems that cause these tragic outbreaks in the first place has yet to be undertaken by government agencies. Instead they continue to approve risky band-aid solutions that are likely to cause more problems than they will ever fix, and then keep consumers in the dark about their use.

FDA grants 30-day extension for public comments on animal cloning

The FDA announced today that after several requests, they will grant a 30-day extension on the public comment period to respond to the Agency's draft assessment on allowing food products from cloned animals and their offspring into the food supply unlabeled. FDA has already received several thousand public comments on the proposal and we expect this extension to generate several thousand more.

NEW REPORT SAYS FDA PLAN TO APPROVE SALE OF FOOD FROM ANIMAL CLONES IS BASED ON WISHFUL THINKING, NOT SCIENCE

Center for Food Safety Reveals that Milk and Meat from Clones is Untested and May Pose Health Risks to Consumers

Washington, DC (March 21, 2007) - The Center for Food Safety today issued a report critical of the Food and Drug Administration’s recent risk assessment on animal clones. The Center's review reveals that the risk assessment (which claims to show the safety of cloned food) relies almost entirely on unsupported assumptions and is based "more on faith than science." The Center is calling on FDA to issue a mandatory ban on the use of clones in food production until long-term studies demonstrate the safety of these foods and the vitally important ethical and animal welfare issues in cloning are resolved.
The Center's report "Not Ready for Prime Time: FDA's Flawed Approach to Assessing the Safety of Food from Animal Clones", was released today during a public comment period on FDA's planned approval of food from animal clones that is slated to close on April 2. The Center and numerous other organizations have requested an extension of the comment period to give Americans adequate time to review the Agency's findings and make their views heard.


The FDA says that food from clones is safe, and while they claim this view is supported by strong science, the Center for Food Safety Report actually shows that FDA found virtually no scientific studies to support the commercial release of these experimental foods. For example:



* FDA found no peer-reviewed studies on meat from cloned cows or on milk or meat from the offspring of cow clones.
* FDA found no peer-reviewed studies on meat from cloned pigs or their offspring.
* FDA found no peer-reviewed studies on meat or milk from cloned goats or their offspring.
* FDA found just three peer-reviewed studies on milk from cloned cows; all three studies showed differences in milk from clones that should have prompted further research.



"FDA's flawed approach falls far short of providing the kind of rigorous scientific assessment that Americans deserve before these experimental animals are allowed into the food supply," said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center.



The report further finds that the FDA's risk assessment is based on flawed assumptions and misrepresented findings. A summary of the report, which is attached, shows that:



1. Despite FDA's claim that there is “no difference” between food from clones and their progeny and food from naturally-bred animals, most of the studies they reviewed found troubling abnormalities and defects in animal clones which could pose food safety risks.


2. Evidence from the Agency's own report and from other scientists shows that cloning does not produce identical "twins" and that cloning therefore may not be useful in breeding. In fact, studies have found that clones from the same parent differ significantly from each other and from their parent animal. A recent scientific study concluded that scientists and breeders agree that cloning may not be useful for livestock production.

3. The FDA review contradicts itself, first claiming that genetically defective clones will pose no risk to the food supply because the sick animals will be detected and removed, but then admitting that some sick and defective clones may in fact end up as food.


4. FDA says the defects seen in clones also occur in natural reproduction, differing only by degree in clones, but the Agency also finds several defects in clones that are rarely or never seen in normal animals. For example, one common abnormality in clones that can result in stillbirth or early death - or death of the mother – occurs in normal cows only once in 7,500 instances, while it may occur in up to 42% of cloned cows.

5. While the FDA claims that improvement in cloning technology is resulting in better success rates for clones, a 2005 scientific review found that success rates in cloning remain less than 5%.
6. FDA asserts that the offspring of clones - not clones themselves - will be used for food and that genetic defects in clones are “corrected” in the offspring. But - as the Center finds, the National Academy of Sciences has questioned the validity of this assumption. Even more troubling, FDA downplays or omits from their assessment studies finding that some genetic defects in clones have been reproduced in clones' offspring.


7. FDA has stated that it will not require labels on food from animal clones. But a 2004 National Academy of Sciences study noted that a national system to identify and track food from animal clones "must be implemented" before cloned foods are marketed.



View the Executive Summary (PDF)


View the full report, Not Ready For Prime Time: FDA's Flawed Approach To Assessing The Safety Of Food From Animal Clones (PDF)


In the News:
Reuters - Group Blasts FDA Plan To Allow Food From Clones