Carol Jouzaitis, in her article on E. coli food poisoning (July 14), correctly identifies sloppy slaughterhouse practices and outdated inspection techniques as the sources of the problem and the places where change must begin.
The Department of Agriculture, under pressure to show results, has turned to food irradiation as a possible quick fix. It has gone so far as to support a nuclear industry petition to the Food and Drug Administration for permission to irradiate beef.
But the sheer volume of beef consumed in this country-30 million cattle are slaughtered each year-argues against gamma radiation as a viable “solution.” To irradiate any substantial fraction of that much beef would require the constuction of dozens of giant food irradiation plants.
Has our 50 years of experience with nuclear weapons and nuclear energy been so positive that we want now to create a third major expansion of nuclear technology in this country? Or would the USDA be better advised to go back to the farm and to the slaughterhouse, where the E. coli problem originates?
