FDA Expands Irradiation of Food Supply; Harmonizing with Codex AlimentariusBrandon Turbeville As reported by Food Safety News, the two new policies decided upon by the FDA were issued in response to two petitions filed in 1999 by the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While the previous policy was that only refrigerated or frozen meats could be irradiated, the new rule allows for the irradiation of unrefrigerated raw meat. The second rule change allows for increasing the dose of ionizing radiation in poultry from 3.0 kGY to 4.5 kGy. Although a period for public comment is always set aside for regulatory agency decisions regarding potential changes to policy, the FDA promptly ignored the many comments it received from individuals all over the country as well as consumer advocacy groups which requested the denial of the two FSIS petitions. The response from the FDA was that all of these comments, made by individuals and by groups such as Public Citizen and the Center for Food Safety, were of a general nature and did not contain any substantive information that could be used in a safety evaluation of irradiated poultry. This statement was made regarding both the poultry irradiation rule and the passage of a new meat temperature rule. Predictably, the FDA has defended its decision by circular logic that flies in the face of science and common sense. The agency is claiming that irradiating unrefrigerated meat was not found to increase meats toxicity, change the foods nutritional properties or increase the likelihood of certain bacteria thriving on meat; therefore FDA has determined that this is a safe application for the process. By allowing for higher doses of irradiation in food, the FDA is knowingly complicit in covering up unsanitary food production practices by major corporations as well as accepting the inclusion of clearly harmful material (i.e. radiation) into the food supply. Keep in mind, irradiation is mostly used by corporations in order to cover up deplorable manufacturing conditions and dangerous food contamination. However, much like the FDAs position on genetically modified food, even the concept of consumer choice is nothing more than a smokescreen. For instance, while the FDA states that all irradiated foods entering the supply chain must be accompanied by a radura symbol indicating the irradiation process, the fact is that this symbol is only required to be presented to the first consumer, not the average person actually buying and eating the food. More often than not, the first consumer is actually the high-level distributor of the food. Needless to say, the radura symbol is removed in short order before the goods are shipped to the market and long before they reach the people who purchase them directly. Indeed, the FDA has made moves to derail consumer knowledge even further with relatively recent attempts to re-label irradiated food as pasteurized so as to obscure the real nature of the treatment process. In fact, the proposal even states that an alternate term to irradiation may be considered for use with no further suggestion as to what this term may be. Therefore, one legitimately wonders whether or not, if the proposal should go through, the selected terminology will be even more obfuscating than that of pasteurization. Lastly, it is important to note that the FDA has been making clear strides toward harmonization with Codex Alimentarius guidelines for at least the last ten years. As I discuss in my bookCodex Alimentarius The End of Health Freedom, Codex Alimentarius itself has set the acceptable limit of food irradiation at 10 kGy with loopholes that actually allow for unlimited levels of irradiation. Indeed, the FDA has also pushed for Codex harmonization with vitamin and mineral supplements, as well as genetically modified foods[2]. With this in mind, it would be well within reason to expect to see the acceptable levels of food irradiation raised even higher in the very near future. [1] Federal Register Proposed Rule 72 FR 16291 April 4, 2007: Irradiation in the Production, Processing, and Handling of Food, P.1. *Source no longer readily available online.* See also, Turbeville, Brandon. Codex Alimentarius The End of Health Freedom. 2010. The Book Patch. False Flag Publications. P.79. [2] Smith, Jeffrey. Seeds of Deception. YES! Books. 2003. http://www.amazon.com/Seeds-Deception-Government-Genetically-Engineered/dp/0972966587/ref=sr_1_1?s=booksie=UTF8qid=1354916526sr=1-1keywords=seeds+of+deception Read other articles by Brandon Turbeville here. Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelors Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of three books, Codex Alimentarius The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, and Five Sense Solutionsand Dispatches From a Dissident.Turbeville has published over 175 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbevilles podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com. 