FDA approves spraying viruses on meat

"WASHINGTON Aug 18, 2006 (AP)— A mix of bacteria-killing viruses can be safely sprayed on cold cuts, hot dogs and sausages to combat common microbes that kill hundreds of people a year, federal health officials said Friday in granting the first-ever approval of viruses as a food additive.

The combination of six viruses is designed to be sprayed on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, including sliced ham and turkey, said John Vazzana, president and chief executive officer of manufacturer Intralytix Inc."

abcnews.go.com...

"Consumers will not be aware which meat and poultry products have been treated with the spray, Mr. Zajac said. The Department of Agriculture will regulate the actual use of the product."

This sure seems like a rather large national security threat. Who is going to regulate these viruses? Which branch of our government is even qualified to monitor virus quality? And who is going to clean up the mess when one of these viruses mutate?

I've been monitoring this subject since Friday and even made a Google Alert for it. The only thing that turns up is this same story (verbatum usually) on every news outlet in the US.
I did find one site that is discussing this issue and seems to have the same general concerns as I do... securingamerica.com...

The FDA has already approved this, but I am not convinced that this new additive to our food has been completely thought out.

Spraying viruses to kill a couple bacteria that only kill a couple hundred people a year, when proper, thougrough cooking would to the job just as well.

This is insane. Yet another reason not to eat processed meats. As if they dont have enough additives already.

i wouldnt be too woried about a few bacteria, after all they'll probably be killed straight off by all the steroids and other drugs left in the meat from where they were injected into the animals during their lifetime

Another thing that bothers me about this is haven't we learned about the consequences of introducing foreign bugs to control a problem species?

www.albionmonitor.com...

It often ends up becoming a bigger problem than it started out as.

The reason we have not encountered any major bio-terrorism to date is the fact that nobody can distribute an biological agent effectively.

Now they can.

They won't just spray it over processed meats, they will also spray it on vegetables. Heard this on the Alex Jones radio. Don't know much more.

i just became a vegetarian