This week, the United States Food and Drug Administration ruled that producers are allowed to expose lettuce and spinach to high levels of radiation in order to kill harmful bacteria.

Safer produce
Irradiation is a common practice used to "clean" foods which may be harmful to the consumer and many products including meat, poultry, fruit and vegetables have been given the green light to be irradiated before they hit the supermarket shelves.

After an outbreak of E-coli killed three people in 2006 and left nearly 200 people unwell, the FDA have taken steps to make food safer and uncontaminated. However, the FDA is also quick to point out that consumers still need to wash and peel their vegetables to ensure perfect cleanliness.

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

Contamination still a threat
Yet, there are some that say this won't protect people from all sources of illness, as irradiation can destroy bacteria but not viruses, thus contamination is still an issue. Its opponents say that irradiating vegetables is expensive and doesn't solve the problem at the core. Instead, producers should be reporting on how they use manure and the safety of their irrigation water.

At least, this is what the Center for Science in the Public Interest states, as it warns that irradiation "won't control all hazards on these products."

In the EU, there are much stricter laws on irradiation and currently only spices can be irradiated and traded in the Economic bloc, somewhat creating another barrier between the US and the European Community.