Should we irradiate fruits and vegetables?

Pin-pointing the problem
Last week, California and federal officials announced they pinpointed the source of last fall's E. coli outbreak to a small cattle ranch about 30 miles from California’s central coastline.

The bad news? Dr. Kevin Reilly of the California Department of Health says soil and water testing has shown Salinas Valley is teeming with E. coli.

"This E. coli contamination is out there and it's happening," he says. "I don't know if we have evidence that it's increasing, but it's persisting. It's definitely alarming."

E. coli is spread through animal waste. And yet, throughout the Salinas Valley, cattle and wildlife coexist near crops and irrigation canals.

"The ability for those animals to come in contact with the spinach or the lettuce needs to be removed," says Reilly.

Reilly says once produce is tainted, not even the chemical baths at the processing plant will kill E. coli. "That processing isn't removing the bacterial contamination," he says. "It remains and is causing illness. That's clearly worrisome to me. It should be worrisome to everybody."

Once E. coli-contaminated produce slips through the system, consumers have no way to defend against it. A thorough cooking will kill E. coli if it's present in hamburger, and cooking spinach will protect you as well. But people don't cook fresh salad.

Irradiation critics contend that while irradiation technology may kill E. coli bacteria, it won't fix contamination issues— and may only actually mask the underlying problems in food manufacturing.

So what to do?
There's a push in Congress for tougher federal standards, and mandatory inspections. But Reilly says that's impractical.

"We can't inspect our way to food safety," he says. "It's just too much production going on at any one time. We can't be on every site watching every practice."

Reilly says industry and government are now working on an agreement where companies that follow tougher safety guidelines would be able to use a government seal of approval on packaging. While the standards are still being hammered out, they are expected to include requirements for buffer zones between cattle and farms, a ban on the use of raw manure fertilizer, and frequent testing of irrigation water for E. coli.

In the meantime, some retailers are taking their own measures. Costco, the country's largest wholesale buying club, now requires suppliers to test produce before it's shipped. Workers test samples right from the fields for E. coli and nothing leaves the plant until the results come back.

If Reilly had a youngster, or an aging parent at home, would he feed them lettuce or spinach from the Salinas Valley?

"I'm a diabetic," he says. "I'm one of those persons who are at higher risk. I'm eating spinach, and I'm eating fresh lettuce right now as well. What is that risk? It's really quite low, but it's there."

Michelle Matthews says risk analysis misses the point.

"My kid got sick," she says. "It's still just too much. They need to do more."

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