Produce irradiation approval pleases Sioux City firm
By Dave Dreeszen Journal business editor | Posted: Sunday, August 31, 2008
President Harlan Clemmons is seen next to flats of bags of lettuce and spinach, which Sadex Corp. has been testing at its electron beam facility. Clemmons and other food industry leaders celebrated a recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration decision, which allows the irradiation of the leafy green vegetables for the first time. (Staff photo by Tim Hynds)
SIOUX CITY -- Zapping fresh produce with a tiny dose of irradiation is a safe and inexpensive way to head off outbreaks of foodborne illness.
That's the case Sadex Corp. President Harlan Clemmons and his fellow food industry allies have been making for more than eight years. Now federal regulators finally agree.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration last week approved the use of ionizing radiation for spinach and iceberg lettuce as a health precaution.
Sioux City-based Sadex's patented electron beam technology, which currently is used to kill dangerous pathogens, like E.colo, in beef, now hopes to add leafy green vegetables to its product mix. Clemmons said Sadex is in talks with a half dozen suppliers interested in treating bagged produce before its arrives in supermarket coolers.
While the FDA decision stands to add to Sadex's business, Clemmons describes the American consumers as the biggest winners.
"The best thing is they fully embraced irradiation as an intervention to get rid of these food-borne pathogens to help prevent people from getting sick and dying,'' he said.
Had the new FDA rule been in place sooner, Iowa State University's Dennis Olson is convinced irradiation could have prevented some of the more than 200 illnesses and three deaths that occurred during an outbreak of California grown spinach in 2006.
"If we treat all of the lettuce and spinach, then there's going to be a very rare instance of exposure to illness-causing microorganisms,'' said Olson, a professor of animal science who supervises ISU's research irradiation facility, one of just two commercial-size complex on a U.S. campus.
In the wake of the 2006 outbreak, Sadex called a high-profile news conference to demonstrate their confidence in their technology, which works much like the pasteurization of milk. In front of the cameras, Clemmons and other company executives ate salads made from tainted spinach that had been irradiated at the Sioux City plant, 2650 Murray St.
Since then, Sadex has successfully tested not only bags of spinach and lettuce, but a wide range of other fresh produce, from melons and mushrooms to peppers and tomatoes. The latter was the subject of nationwide salmonella outbreak this summer that forced grocers and restaurants to temporarily pull the vegetable from their shelves and menus.
The FDA has allowed irradiation for poultry since 1992 and red meat since 2000. It's also approved for some other products, such as spices and whole eggs. But for fruits and vegetables, irradiation previously had been allowed only for deinfestation, enough to get rid of bugs.
Nearly a decade ago, a coalition of food companies and consumers groups petitioned the federal agency to expand the list of irradiated foods for human consumption to include what's known as ready-to-eat products. The category includes not only fresh produce, but also processed meats, like hot dogs and roast beef.
Clemmons and ISU's Olson emerged as leaders in the coalition's lobbying effort, traveling frequently to Washington D.C. In March, both testified at a congressional hearing, where Clemmons showcased some of Sadex's irradiated produce. After sampling some leafy spinach, members of a House commerce oversight committee declared the taste no different.
While the new FDA ruling narrowly applies to spinach and iceberg lettuce, Clemmons believes the wording in the new regulations "provide ample opportunities to open it up to other products.''
Irradiation advocates have some powerful allies to advance the issue, such as U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who toured the Sioux City Sadex facility just last month.
"When you read about what it will do to protect people, it brings you around to why isn't the government approving it for other products?" Grassley asked.
Cost and consumer acceptance are two obstacles that stand in the way of large amounts of the leafy greens being treated with irradiation, however.
Some consumer advocate groups opposed the approval of irradiation meat, and also object to extending the process to fresh produce, saying it would give large producers a free pass to ignore basic health issues.
Clemmons acknowledges irradiation, while it's been around for decades, still must overcome some public misconceptions, including erroneous reports that the treated food becomes radioactive.
"If they have knowledge and understanding of what irradiation does, they'd have no concern,'' he said of consumers.
Unlike some other commercial methods of removing pathogens from foods, no chemical or radioactive agents are involved in Sadex's process, powered by large volumes of common electricity. A deposit of electrons is scanned across a product. The energy from the radiation breaks the bonds in the DNA molecules, effectively killing the targeted organisms..
At the Sadex plant, boxes of products are placed on a conveyer belt. After entering a special chamber, they're zapped by two opposing electron beams, one above and one below, encased in a 19-foot-tall concrete bunker.
A series of safety precautions prevent humans from being exposed to the low levels of radiation from the accelerator, said plant operator Mike Adams. When the accelerator is turned on, an alarm sounds and a red light flashes above the chamber door, which can only be opened with a key.
The dose is adjusted by speeding up or slowing down the conveyer. Customers set the amount of radiation applied, based on the type of product and the strength of the pathogen present. Strains of salmonella, for instance, require more radiation than E.Coli, Clemmons said.
Titan Corp., a San Diego-based defense and technology contractor, built the Sioux City plant in 1999. Three years later, Titan's subsidiary, SureBeam went out of business. Clemmons, former plant manager of the SureBeam Sioux City plant, said the company expanded too quickly, opening other plants not only in the U.S., but also Vietnam.
In 2005, the Sioux City facility reopened under a new investment group, headed by Texas entrepreneur David Corbin. Clemmons, who is also an investor, stayed on as president and chief operating officer.
The 16,000-square-foot plant, located in the center of Sioux City's cold storage district, has the capacity to annually irradiate about 30,000 pounds of product per hour, or 200 million pounds per year. But the facility, which has six full-time employees, currently runs at about at about 25 to 30 percent of capacity, Clemmons said.
After SureBeam went out of business, most of the Sioux City plant's customers, including meatpacking giant IBP inc., now part of Tyson Foods, and Internet retailer Omaha Steak, went elsewhere for irradiation services.
Sadex has slowly been building back its customer base, which today includes food giant Cargill, the Cargill-affiliated Wegman's supermarket chain, and Schwan's, a home delivery food chain based in Marshall, Minn.
Irradiated meat has not gained as widespread acceptance in the United States as supporters had hoped. One reason is that many consumers opt to kill bacteria in ground beef through proper cooking. But Clemmons points out that's not an option for lettuce and spinach, which can become infected in a number of steps throughout the production line.
"If you want fresh produce, the only way to make sure it's safe is to irradiate it,'' he said.
As the only refrigerated commercial electron beam plant in the U.S., Clemmons said gives Sadex a leg up over other sources of irradiation approved for food, which includes gamma rays and X-rays.
The Sioux City warehouse is kept at a constant 29 degrees Fahrenheit -- cold enough to keep ground beef and other frozen meat from thawing, but not too cold to damage fresh produce, he said.
Repeated tests have shown the electronic beam technology kills the dangerous pathogens without changing the taste or texture of the food. As a side benefit, the beams also extends the shelf-life of perishable products, two to even three times longer than normal.
Olson said American consumers are more willing to buy irradiated food than they may have been in the past.
"The experience with ground beef is that consumers have not reacted negatively to the label,'' he said. "The only negative reaction is to price. It costs more.''
E-beam irradiation adds about 10 to 20 cents per pound to the cost of a product, which equates to just a few pennies more for a nine-ounce bag of spinach, Clemmons said. That small added cost, he said, would help producers avoid the huge expense of recalls and multi-million dollar lawsuits by consumers who become ill or die from tainted products.
"I think if the consumers knew that the produce was safe, I think they'd actually sell more,'' he said.
Here's a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of the three irradiation methods approved for removing pathogens from food.
-- Electron beam. Used at Sadex Corp's Sioux City plant, the beams run on common electricity. It irradiates low-density products at high speeds in a relatively compact chamber, though product penetration is limited. No radioactive or chemical agents are used.
-- Gamma rays. Typically using Cobalt-60, this method provides the high product penetration and the lowest cost. The process is the slowest, and it creates radioactive waste, potentially harming the environment.
X-rays. A high frequency energy source, this method can penetrate as deeply as Cobalt-60. X-rays can negatively impact the color and texture of some foods.
Source: Sadex Corp.
That's the case Sadex Corp. President Harlan Clemmons and his fellow food industry allies have been making for more than eight years. Now federal regulators finally agree.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration last week approved the use of ionizing radiation for spinach and iceberg lettuce as a health precaution.
Sioux City-based Sadex's patented electron beam technology, which currently is used to kill dangerous pathogens, like E.colo, in beef, now hopes to add leafy green vegetables to its product mix. Clemmons said Sadex is in talks with a half dozen suppliers interested in treating bagged produce before its arrives in supermarket coolers.
While the FDA decision stands to add to Sadex's business, Clemmons describes the American consumers as the biggest winners.
"The best thing is they fully embraced irradiation as an intervention to get rid of these food-borne pathogens to help prevent people from getting sick and dying,'' he said.
Had the new FDA rule been in place sooner, Iowa State University's Dennis Olson is convinced irradiation could have prevented some of the more than 200 illnesses and three deaths that occurred during an outbreak of California grown spinach in 2006.
"If we treat all of the lettuce and spinach, then there's going to be a very rare instance of exposure to illness-causing microorganisms,'' said Olson, a professor of animal science who supervises ISU's research irradiation facility, one of just two commercial-size complex on a U.S. campus.
In the wake of the 2006 outbreak, Sadex called a high-profile news conference to demonstrate their confidence in their technology, which works much like the pasteurization of milk. In front of the cameras, Clemmons and other company executives ate salads made from tainted spinach that had been irradiated at the Sioux City plant, 2650 Murray St.
Since then, Sadex has successfully tested not only bags of spinach and lettuce, but a wide range of other fresh produce, from melons and mushrooms to peppers and tomatoes. The latter was the subject of nationwide salmonella outbreak this summer that forced grocers and restaurants to temporarily pull the vegetable from their shelves and menus.
The FDA has allowed irradiation for poultry since 1992 and red meat since 2000. It's also approved for some other products, such as spices and whole eggs. But for fruits and vegetables, irradiation previously had been allowed only for deinfestation, enough to get rid of bugs.
Nearly a decade ago, a coalition of food companies and consumers groups petitioned the federal agency to expand the list of irradiated foods for human consumption to include what's known as ready-to-eat products. The category includes not only fresh produce, but also processed meats, like hot dogs and roast beef.
Clemmons and ISU's Olson emerged as leaders in the coalition's lobbying effort, traveling frequently to Washington D.C. In March, both testified at a congressional hearing, where Clemmons showcased some of Sadex's irradiated produce. After sampling some leafy spinach, members of a House commerce oversight committee declared the taste no different.
While the new FDA ruling narrowly applies to spinach and iceberg lettuce, Clemmons believes the wording in the new regulations "provide ample opportunities to open it up to other products.''
Irradiation advocates have some powerful allies to advance the issue, such as U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who toured the Sioux City Sadex facility just last month.
"When you read about what it will do to protect people, it brings you around to why isn't the government approving it for other products?" Grassley asked.
Cost and consumer acceptance are two obstacles that stand in the way of large amounts of the leafy greens being treated with irradiation, however.
Some consumer advocate groups opposed the approval of irradiation meat, and also object to extending the process to fresh produce, saying it would give large producers a free pass to ignore basic health issues.
Clemmons acknowledges irradiation, while it's been around for decades, still must overcome some public misconceptions, including erroneous reports that the treated food becomes radioactive.
"If they have knowledge and understanding of what irradiation does, they'd have no concern,'' he said of consumers.
Unlike some other commercial methods of removing pathogens from foods, no chemical or radioactive agents are involved in Sadex's process, powered by large volumes of common electricity. A deposit of electrons is scanned across a product. The energy from the radiation breaks the bonds in the DNA molecules, effectively killing the targeted organisms..
At the Sadex plant, boxes of products are placed on a conveyer belt. After entering a special chamber, they're zapped by two opposing electron beams, one above and one below, encased in a 19-foot-tall concrete bunker.
A series of safety precautions prevent humans from being exposed to the low levels of radiation from the accelerator, said plant operator Mike Adams. When the accelerator is turned on, an alarm sounds and a red light flashes above the chamber door, which can only be opened with a key.
The dose is adjusted by speeding up or slowing down the conveyer. Customers set the amount of radiation applied, based on the type of product and the strength of the pathogen present. Strains of salmonella, for instance, require more radiation than E.Coli, Clemmons said.
Titan Corp., a San Diego-based defense and technology contractor, built the Sioux City plant in 1999. Three years later, Titan's subsidiary, SureBeam went out of business. Clemmons, former plant manager of the SureBeam Sioux City plant, said the company expanded too quickly, opening other plants not only in the U.S., but also Vietnam.
In 2005, the Sioux City facility reopened under a new investment group, headed by Texas entrepreneur David Corbin. Clemmons, who is also an investor, stayed on as president and chief operating officer.
The 16,000-square-foot plant, located in the center of Sioux City's cold storage district, has the capacity to annually irradiate about 30,000 pounds of product per hour, or 200 million pounds per year. But the facility, which has six full-time employees, currently runs at about at about 25 to 30 percent of capacity, Clemmons said.
After SureBeam went out of business, most of the Sioux City plant's customers, including meatpacking giant IBP inc., now part of Tyson Foods, and Internet retailer Omaha Steak, went elsewhere for irradiation services.
Sadex has slowly been building back its customer base, which today includes food giant Cargill, the Cargill-affiliated Wegman's supermarket chain, and Schwan's, a home delivery food chain based in Marshall, Minn.
Irradiated meat has not gained as widespread acceptance in the United States as supporters had hoped. One reason is that many consumers opt to kill bacteria in ground beef through proper cooking. But Clemmons points out that's not an option for lettuce and spinach, which can become infected in a number of steps throughout the production line.
"If you want fresh produce, the only way to make sure it's safe is to irradiate it,'' he said.
As the only refrigerated commercial electron beam plant in the U.S., Clemmons said gives Sadex a leg up over other sources of irradiation approved for food, which includes gamma rays and X-rays.
The Sioux City warehouse is kept at a constant 29 degrees Fahrenheit -- cold enough to keep ground beef and other frozen meat from thawing, but not too cold to damage fresh produce, he said.
Repeated tests have shown the electronic beam technology kills the dangerous pathogens without changing the taste or texture of the food. As a side benefit, the beams also extends the shelf-life of perishable products, two to even three times longer than normal.
Olson said American consumers are more willing to buy irradiated food than they may have been in the past.
"The experience with ground beef is that consumers have not reacted negatively to the label,'' he said. "The only negative reaction is to price. It costs more.''
E-beam irradiation adds about 10 to 20 cents per pound to the cost of a product, which equates to just a few pennies more for a nine-ounce bag of spinach, Clemmons said. That small added cost, he said, would help producers avoid the huge expense of recalls and multi-million dollar lawsuits by consumers who become ill or die from tainted products.
"I think if the consumers knew that the produce was safe, I think they'd actually sell more,'' he said.
Here's a look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of the three irradiation methods approved for removing pathogens from food.
-- Electron beam. Used at Sadex Corp's Sioux City plant, the beams run on common electricity. It irradiates low-density products at high speeds in a relatively compact chamber, though product penetration is limited. No radioactive or chemical agents are used.
-- Gamma rays. Typically using Cobalt-60, this method provides the high product penetration and the lowest cost. The process is the slowest, and it creates radioactive waste, potentially harming the environment.
X-rays. A high frequency energy source, this method can penetrate as deeply as Cobalt-60. X-rays can negatively impact the color and texture of some foods.
Source: Sadex Corp.
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