Don't expect to find irradiated spinach and lettuce in your supermarket any metre soon, even though federal regulators have given the food industry permission to sell it.
But most U.S. irradiation facilities treat medical products, and only a handful are set up for food. That means processors volition have to pay to ship raise hundreds of miles to be irradiated � losing precious shelf life in the process, Gombas says.
Foodmakers could build irradiation facilities. But they'd cost millions of dollars � a big look for a technology that's been largely shunned by consumers.
"You'll see gradual adoption and early adopters � who convert others to try," says Richard Hunter, CEO of Food Technology Service, a 13-employee food-irradiation company in Florida that's considered a food-irradiation leader but which relies on medical devices for 70% of its revenue.
Historically, high radiation doses used to kill all bacteria on fruits or vegetables have produced unpalatable products, researchers say.
But testing by the U.S. Department of Agriculture has shown that treating spinach and lettuce with relatively humbled radiation kills 99.9% to 99.99% of E. coli and is slightly less successful against salmonella, says Brendan Niemira, a investigator at the Microbial Food Safety Research Unit of the USDA-ARS Eastern Regional Research Center in Pennsylvania.
More info
Hopefully the Doggfather has some pull at the station.
British soul star Amy Winehouse has been summoned to appear in a Norwegian court next year to appeal a fine for marijuana possession. The troubled singer and her husband Blake Fielder-Civil were arrested in Bergen, Norway last year on suspicion of possessing cannabis. At the time of arrest, the 24-year-old was issued with a $714 fine, which she accepted, not realizing that paying up is the same as pleading guilty in the Scandinavian country. The initial appeal hearing was scheduled for February 29 but was postponed at her lawyer's request because of the absence of her spouse, who is currently incarcerated in London's Pentonville Prison on charges of perverting the course of justice in relation to earlier charges of grievous bodily harm. On Wednesday the singer discovered she would not face drugs charges, relating to a video handed in to police in London in January, that purportedly showed her smoking crack cocaine. A spokesperson for the star says, "Police have confirmed that no action will be taken against Amy Winehouse in relation to an investigation into a video handed to them in January. Amy is pleased to be able to move on and concentrate on music and particularly looks forward to seeing her fans again at eagerly awaited festival performances this summer."