The FDA is warning the public not to eat, sell or serve certain Great Value raw frozen shrimp sold at Walmart due to possible contamination with Cesium-137.
For those wondering or panicking because they never heard of this, food irradiation is normal and common and a good thing, it’s not typically ionizing radiation that turns something radioactive, it’s more like how microwaves work but the non-heating kind. This was some kind of really rare fuckup.
Microwaves is a bad analogy because so many people equate radio wave “radiation” with nuclear radiation. Even though radio energy is just non-ionizing energy. Microwave ovens, in fact, just blast 2.4GHz (think WiFi) at water molecules, which then vibrate and heat up. Why 2.4? Because it was an ISM band not used for anything in particular. It could run at other frequencies too and the same effect would occur.
Food irradiation is just a step in the food processing process, like washing the food in water. That way, even if you do find a bug on your lettuce, any bad bacteria or parasite that were on the bug are dead.
I am betting more people know how microwaves work in broad strokes than the kinds of radiation used to sterilize food. I know in the early days of microwave ovens there were a LOT of people who had no idea how it worked and thought if you opened the door too soon deadly radiation would leak out like the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark and melt everyone’s faces. Most kids who grew up in those times understood our parent’s concerns were overblown as we all tried microwaving various things for fun.
I think despite the other things our modern society is stupid about, most people get that microwaves are radio waves, because of the prevalence of microwave towers and personal satellite dishes that use microwaves. Meanwhile, barely anyone has any idea what goes on between the carrot fields and walmart grocery bins.
I can’t find anything, but Cs-137 is used in food irradiation, so that’s a possibility.
For those wondering or panicking because they never heard of this, food irradiation is normal and common and a good thing, it’s not typically ionizing radiation that turns something radioactive, it’s more like how microwaves work but the non-heating kind. This was some kind of really rare fuckup.
Microwaves is a bad analogy because so many people equate radio wave “radiation” with nuclear radiation. Even though radio energy is just non-ionizing energy. Microwave ovens, in fact, just blast 2.4GHz (think WiFi) at water molecules, which then vibrate and heat up. Why 2.4? Because it was an ISM band not used for anything in particular. It could run at other frequencies too and the same effect would occur.
Food irradiation is just a step in the food processing process, like washing the food in water. That way, even if you do find a bug on your lettuce, any bad bacteria or parasite that were on the bug are dead.
I am betting more people know how microwaves work in broad strokes than the kinds of radiation used to sterilize food. I know in the early days of microwave ovens there were a LOT of people who had no idea how it worked and thought if you opened the door too soon deadly radiation would leak out like the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark and melt everyone’s faces. Most kids who grew up in those times understood our parent’s concerns were overblown as we all tried microwaving various things for fun.
I think despite the other things our modern society is stupid about, most people get that microwaves are radio waves, because of the prevalence of microwave towers and personal satellite dishes that use microwaves. Meanwhile, barely anyone has any idea what goes on between the carrot fields and walmart grocery bins.