Syracuse Bans Irradiated Foods

Syracuse University has issued a ban on serving irradiated foods on campus, and the school’s dining chief said Friday he believes the policy is the first of its kind in the nation.

The policy, effective this month, states that university dining services will not use, for either consumption or resale, any food, food product, ingredient, seasoning or spice that has been treated with or exposed to radiation.

“We just do not believe there has been enough research in this area,” said Craig Harman, director of residential dining services and commissary operations at SU. “To the best of our knowledge, we are the only one who has come out with a formal policy against food irradiation.”

Irradiation is a process that uses gamma rays to preserve food, kill insects on foods, and kill food-borne bacteria such as salmonella. The gamma rays are derived from radioactive isotopes such as cobalt-60 and cesium-137, which is a waste product of nuclear power.

The federal Food and Drug Adminstration, which ruled irradiated foods are safe to eat, legalized the treatment of fruits, vegetables, grains, spices and pork with radiation in 1986, but some consumer groups claim the long-term health effects of eating irradiated foods remain unknown.

Although irradiation does not make food radioactive, Harman said research indicates it causes the creation of small amounts of previous unknown chemicals in food.