Source:  Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 9/18/09

The American Meat Institute is requesting a meeting with USDA officials on its long-standing request that the agency approve electron beam irradiation application to beef carcasses.

In a letter to Jerold Mande, USDA's deputy under secretary for food safety, AMI Executive Vice President James Hodges asked to sit down and talk about AMI's four-year-old petition to allow the technology use as a food safety intervention.

"Given the substantial food safety benefits this technology offers it seems that the technical issues being raised four years after the petition's submission can be appropriately addressed during the notice and comment rulemaking process that would be
required to allow use of this technology in the manner requested," Hodges wrote, urging FSIS to begin that process.

"We continue to believe this technology can be another effective microbiological intervention to enhance the safety of the meat supply," he added.

Hodges is USDA's top FSIS official, given that the administration has yet to name an under secretary for food safety.

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