Irradiating fresh vegetables

Washington - The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is preparing to release a statement to the effect that irradiating fresh vegetables such as iceberg lettuce and spinach.

This practice would remove any chance of E. coli and other dangerous germs from fresh veggies, a fact that could go a long way to ease the minds of worried Americans when it comes to eating healthy vegetables.

This would not however, mean that consumers of fresh veggies should stop washing their veggies when they buy them.

The act of irradiating vegetables, involves zapping them with just enough radiation to rid them of dangerous toxins.

The push to approve this method of dealing with fresh veggies comes on the heal of an E. coli outbreak back in 2006, which was linked to spinach and resulted in 3 deaths.

“What this does is give producers and processors one more tool in the toolbox to make these commodities safer and protect public health,” said Dr. Laura Tarantino, FDA’s chief of food additive safety.