Schwelmo's Welt

Are you sick of eating bad meat but can’t be bothered to become vegetarian? Stop worrying now. The FDA and Intralytix just came up with a solution. No more “Gammelfleisch” or bacteria poisoned meat. In the US they just approved the use of viruses which will kill bacteria in meat.

“The special viruses called bacteriophages are meant to kill strains of the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium, the Food and Drug Administration said in declaring it safe to use on ready-to-eat meats prior to their packaging.

The viruses are the first to win FDA approval for use as a food additive, said Andrew Zajac, of the regulatory agency's office of food additive safety.”

The company Intralytix also plans to seek FDA approval for another bacteriophage product to kill E. coli bacteria on beef before it is ground. Well, that’s a great idea considering the number of E. coli in stomach flora (although phages should usually work against bacteria very specific but I am not sure if it is strain specific). There is a possibility that bacteria can get resistant against phage (the viruses). As there are truckloads of bacteria on meat, which due to the progressive and modern farming methods already have a high antibiotica resistance we can make now superbacteria out of them. But I am sure they have intensively test everything and are not hurrying to bring their second product on the market. And why was everybody afraid that the bird flu virus could change and mate with the human influenza virus...?? Well, I do not understand enoug about viruses, so maybe I am just against progression.

Ah, in case you think that you’ll just avoid the food products that have been treated… they’re not going to label the products. :-)

I liked this comment on the topic....but I am biased. Look at printer friendly version

Labels: food industry mafia, vegan

# posted by Schwelmo @ Tuesday, September 05, 2006