Appeal to embrace irradiation

Dominic Dyer, chief executive of the UK Crop Protection Association, representing pesticide manufacturers, picked the argument up in this week’s New Scientist.

He said: “In recent years I have become increasingly concerned by the willingness of the organic industry to market its products as a healthier and safer alternative to conventional food production. They are not. In fact, by shunning science, organic producers could be increasing consumers’ risk of contracting Escherichia coli and other food-borne diseases.”

The German outbreak, which killed 35 people and made thousands very ill, has apparently been traced to bean sprouts grown on an organic farm and the discovery has focused attention on the possible risks of using manure as a natural fertiliser.

The NFU says British growers saw millions of pounds worth of their crops dumped as a result of reaction against salads and a glut of spare produce from the rest of Europe. Mr Dyer said: “The outbreak could have been prevented if the organic industry had been willing to irradiate their produce. The bean sprout crop requires a warm and humid environment, which increases the risk of contamination by disease-causing bacteria. The only certain means of reducing this risk is to irradiate the bean sprout seeds, which effectively kills 99.999 percent of E. coli. If organic food is irradiated then the technology will be more widely accepted across the food chain in general and lives will be saved.”

Mr Dyer told the Yorkshire Post that X and Gamma irradiation of seeds protected the growing plants from nurturing E. coli. But in some cases it was more effective to irradiate the end product.

Exposure was comparable to the output of a computer screen and the only concern about it was consumer resistance. It is approved by the WHO but in Europe is little used and proscribed by organic standards.