Food Safety Carcass irradiation controversy USDA puts the kibosh on AMI’s petition again, creating more questions than answers BY BERNARD SHIRE meatpoultry@sosland.com his summer, the US Dept. of A g r ic u lt u re qu iet ly t u r ned down a six-year-old petition from the American Meat Institute to allow the use of electron-beam irradiation on meat and poultry carcasses as a food-safety processing tool. The T Food Safety and Inspection Service’s decision somehow was kept under the radar and avoided coverage by most national daily newspapers, TV reports and the news was scarcely mentioned on the Internet. The petition was submitted by the trade association in 2005, and food- safety regulators mulled it for more than five years. Ironically, the idea was supported by both the meat and poultry industry and some consumer groups, although some consumer advocates 76 • Meat&Poultry • September 2011 • www.MeatPoultry.comhttp://www.MeatPoultry.com