Food irradiation education project in schools progresses despite snags

Robert Roos

May 29, 2003 (CIDRAP News) A federally funded pilot project to inform people in three Minnesota school districts about food irradiation is moving toward completion despite a few rough spots, including the withdrawal of one district and outspoken opposition from some parents in another.

The three school districts surveyed school staffs and parents earlier this spring on their attitudes and knowledge about food irradiation. Two of the districts then provided educational materials about irradiation to the same groups and are following up with another survey to see if attitudes have changed. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded the program in connection with plans to offer irradiated ground beef to schools through the National School Lunch Program.

The project has gone smoothly in Willmar, a small town in central Minnesota, according to Annette Derouin, the district's food service director. "We really have had no issues or concerns come back from the staff or community," she told CIDRAP News. But the Sauk Rapids district, near St. Cloud, pulled out of the project before distributing the educational materials because it seemed likely to become controversial, said Gary Kawlewski, the district business manager.

Educational materials for the project were produced by the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning (MDCFL). "When the materials came out, we felt we were being placed in the middle of the debate about whether irradiation was good or bad, and we decided it wasn't our fight to fight," Kawslewski told CIDRAP News. The school board was concerned that it would be seen as an advocate of food irradiation, he said. "We just decided it was more controversial than we ever agreed to sign on for."

Meanwhile, Spring Lake Park, a Twin Cities suburban district, has stuck with the project despite determined opposition from what food service director Barbara Hann described as a small group of parents. The opponents attended three school board meetings and two PTA meetings to argue that food irradiation is imprudent because too little is known about its effects, Hann told CIDRAP News.

Since the aim of the project was simply to assess attitudes and provide information, "The controversy was a surprise to me," she said. The opponents used materials from Public Citizen, a consumer activist group that opposes food irradiation, to "pick apart" the fact sheets used in the project, according to Hann. "There was a lack of understanding of the science" of irradiation, she said, adding that the opponents have used information and comments out of context to make the school superintendent look "evil."

The pilot project is a result of the 2002 farm bill, in which Congress, in effect, directed USDA to consider buying irradiated ground beef for the National School Lunch Program. After the bill was passed, Minnesota officials suggested that USDA fund the project with the aim of developing a model set of educational materials that school districts nationwide could use when considering serving irradiated ground beef. USDA bought the idea and granted $151,000 to the MDCFL for the program, which was formally announced last January.

USDA has said it will be up to school districts to decide if they want any irradiated ground beef from the federal program. The agency has not yet bought any irradiated beef, USDA spokesman Jerry Redding in Washington, DC, told CIDRAP News last week. After receiving public comments for several months, USDA announced today that it is releasing specifications for the product now and that schools will have the option of ordering irradiated beef starting next January (see link below for more information).

The pilot project began earlier this year with an attitudinal survey of school staffs and parents in the three school districts. The results suggested that teachers and school staff viewed food irradiation more favorably than parents did, according to a summary provided by the MDCFL.

All teachers and staff members were polled via e-mail, while 50 parents in each district were questioned by telephone. Overall, surveys were completed by 735 teachers and staff members and 150 parents. Most respondents67% of staff and 72% of parentssaid they were familiar with the term "irradiated ground beef," and between 40% and 50% of both groups said they were interested in learning more about food irradiation.

Teachers and staff members responded more favorably than parents to the question "What comes to mind when you hear the term irradiated ground beef?" Among staff members, responses deemed positive outnumbered negative responses by 191 to 107, with 28 neutral. But among parents, negative comments outnumbered positive ones by 38 to 25, with 24 neutral.

In Spring Lake Park and Willmar, the school districts followed up on the survey by sending irradiation information to the school staffs and parents. Hann, of Spring Lake Park, said the information consisted of five fact sheets covering the irradiation process, foodborne disease fundamentals, the effects of irradiation on nutrients, and the question of long-term health effects of irradiated food. She said the material was similar to information on the Minnesota Department of Health Web site, which makes the case that irradiation is a safe tool that can drastically reduce the risk of foodborne disease.

A follow-up survey, currently under way, aims to assess whether the educational material influenced attitudes and awareness, according to Doug Gray, a MDCFL spokesman in St. Paul. He said the goal is to complete the pilot project sometime this summer.

The school districts' participation in the project doesn't necessarily mean that irradiated ground beef will be served in Willmar or Spring Lake Park schools any time soon.

"Our purpose in being part of it was if USDA decides to do it [offer irradiated ground beef] at some point, we will know what our community feelings and reactions about it are," said Derouin of Willmar. "We have not made a decision."

Hann said any decision to use irradiated ground beef in Spring Lake Park will be up to the school board, but she doesn't expect that her program will be using it next year. "The reason isn't necessarily because of the controversy," she said. Mainly for labor and economic reasons, her program will be relying mostly on processed meat and not acquiring much raw ground beef, she explained.

Hann said her experience with the project has convinced her that food irradiation "is still a big unknown to the public." And in view of the controversy in Spring Lake Park, if the Minnesota project does generate a model education program that USDA provides to districts around the country, "It may not be as easy as they think to implement it" in other districts, she said.