WASHINGTON — Consumers worried about salad safety may soon be able to buy fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce zapped with just enough radiation to kill E. coli and a few other germs.
The Food and Drug Administration today will issue a regulation allowing spinach and lettuce sellers to take that extra step, a long-awaited move amid increasing outbreaks from raw produce.
It doesn’t excuse dirty produce, warned Dr. Laura Tarantino, the FDA’s chief of food additive safety. Farms and processors still must follow standard rules to keep the greens as clean as possible — and consumers, too, should wash the leaves before eating.
“What this does is give producers and processors one more tool in the toolbox to make these commodities safer and protect public health,” Tarantino said.
Irradiated meat has been around for years, particularly ground beef that is a favorite hiding spot for E. coli. Spices also can be irradiated.
But the Grocery Manufacturers Association had petitioned the FDA to allow irradiation of fresh produce, too, starting with leafy greens that have sparked numerous recent outbreaks, including E. coli in spinach that in 2006 killed three people and sickened nearly 200.
The industry group wouldn’t name salad suppliers ready to start irradiating. But it expects niche marketing to trickle out first — bags of spinach and lettuce targeted to high-risk populations such as people with weak immune systems “who right now may be afraid to eat uncooked produce,” said the association’s chief science officer Robert Brackett.
California-based produce giant Dole Food Co. confirmed it is considering irradiated lettuce. “It looks to be very promising,” said spokesman William Goldfield.
