If you share my passion for mushy tomatoes, read on. In light of continuing outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed relaxing its rules on labeling irradiated foods.

This would allow some products zapped with electron beams, high-energy gamma rays, or x-rays – receiving “seven million times more irradiation than a single chest x-ray” -simply to be labeled pasteurized or some other alternative term.

“This move by FDA would deny consumers clear information about whether they are buying food that has been exposed to high doses of ionizing radiation,” says Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. Nor is radiation suitable for all foods. Irradiating Roma tomatoes makes them mushy, FDA admits.

I “love” mushy tomatoes! I hear they are making a huge comeback, in Japan.

Ironically, FDA’s proposed label change comes just as new scientific evidence points to potentially harmful effects for humans from irradiation. Research at the Center for Food Safety (CFS) found the presence of cancer-causing substances in the colons of animals fed irradiated ground beef. And radiation appears to lower the nutritional value of foods.

“Despite these troubling findings, Congress and the USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] are allowing school systems under the National School Lunch Program to serve irradiated food to a potential population of 27 million kids.

This effectively makes school children human guinea pigs in the next round of irradiation tests,” says CFS. Only organic foods are certified to be exempt from irradiation. In 1984, more than 5,000 consumers contacted FDA about its proposal to allow irradiated foods to go label free.

Two years later the agency required the small number of foods it permits to be irradiated to carry an identifying symbol. [source: Taste for Life]