Thread: FDA approves viruses for treating food

Approves Viruses for Treating Food
By Associated Press
Sat Aug 19, 1:55 AM

WASHINGTON - 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.

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 bacterium the viruses target can cause a serious infection called listeriosis, primarily in pregnant women, newborns and adults with weakened immune systems. In the United States, an estimated 2,500 people become seriously ill with listeriosis each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those, 500 die.

Luncheon meats are particularly vulnerable to Listeria since once purchased, they typically aren't cooked or reheated, which can kill harmful bacteria like Listeria, Zajac said.

The preparation of bacteriophages _ the name is Greek for "bacteria-eater" _ attacks only strains of the Listeria bacterium and not human or plant cells, the FDA said.

"As long as it used in accordance with the regulations, we have concluded it's safe," Zajac said. People normally come into contact with phages through food, water and the environment, and they are found in our digestive tracts, the FDA said.

Consumers won't be aware that meat and poultry products have been treated with the spray, Zajac added. The Department of Agriculture will regulate the actual use of the product.

The viruses are grown in a preparation of the very bacteria they kill, and then purified. The FDA had concerns that the virus preparation potentially could contain toxic residues associated with the bacteria. However, testing did not reveal the presence of such residues, which in small quantities likely wouldn't cause health problems anyway, the FDA said.

"The FDA is applying one of the toughest food-safety standards which they have to find this is safe," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group. "They couldn't approve this product if they had questions about its safety."

Intralytix, based in Baltimore, first petitioned the FDA in 2002 to allow the viruses to be used as a food additive. It has since licensed the product to a multinational company, which intends to market it worldwide, said Intralytix president Vazzana. He declined to name the company but said he expected it to announce its plans within weeks or months.

Intralytix also plans to seek FDA approval for another bacteriophage product to kill E. coli bacteria on beef before it is ground, Vazzana said.

Scientists have long studied bacteriophages as a bacteria-fighting alternative to antibiotics.

___

On the Net:

Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov/

Intralytix Inc.: http://www.intralytix.

The globalist are going to destroy us one way or another!

Remember the Georgia Guidestones?


THE MESSAGE OF THE GEORGIA GUIDESTONES

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.
10.Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature.

Limiting the population of the earth to 500 million will require the extermination of nine-tenths of the world's people. The American Stonehenge's reference to establishing a world court foreshadows the current move to create an International Criminal Court and a world government. The Guidestones' emphasis on preserving nature anticipates the environmental movement of the 1990s, and the reference to "seeking harmony with the infinite" reflects the current effort to replace Judeo-Christian beliefs with a new spirituality.

It just concerns me. Viruses mutate. They change and who's to say how quickly or slowly that will happen. Look at aids and the bird flu and colds etc. Many "strains" of the same virus. No one has any way of knowing how or in what direction it will go in the future. And it's no comfort to me knowing I couldn't tell if it was treated or not. S&*!, now no lunchmeat or subs or roastbeef sandwiches.....

I quit eating that processed crap a long time ago. Even more of a reason now to stay away from it.


Im with you this is Crazy.

That word "phage". I hear that and what comes to mind is Star Trek Voyager. They were a group of intelligent people who had this disease in which ate up their organs and all. It was called the "phage". They were a terror because they were always trying to harvest organs and such to keep alive. They couldn't find a cure but they were skilled enough to do transplants to temporarily extend their life. You never wanted to touch them because you "catch" it too. Who's to say that couldn't be the outcome of this?

crazybird, please don't fall in the trap of making judgement of technological developments based on information from a peice of television fiction that was filled with nonsensical technobabel.

Each of us consumes or inhales thousands of phage particles everyday. The things are endemic in the environment, being found on in the air, on the surfaces of your home, on the food you eat and on you skin & hair. If you do not have the target proteins on your cell walls that a particular phage recognizes, you are of zero interest to the phage.

Not to say that one should blindly trust every advance in technology to be a good thing. I'd like to see the research on how the phages were selected, and what titer they are present in on the final consummer product. I'd also like to see the products labeled as such so that each consumer can make their purchasing choices fully informed.

I'd also like to see the products labeled as such so that each consumer can make their purchasing choices fully informed.

That says a mouthful, but the FDA is not, so I can only assume that it is most likely harmful if they deem that the general public doesn’t need to know about it.

I have no problems with advancements but I still want full disclosure and I want to know what is in my food. I as a consumer, one who needs food and pays for it, has the right to know.

[quotecrazybird, please don't fall in the trap of making judgement of technological developments based on information from a peice of television fiction that was filled with nonsensical technobabel][/quote]

I know that. It was just the first time I heard the word phage.

I just don't trust the governments word on the safety of anything anymore. Especially when they are artifically engineering things that they have no clue of future reprocussions of.

Their track record isn't too good.

Ahhh..gotcha crazybird. You are correct being doubtful of the FDA and suspect of new technology until its proven safe. One of the product a former employer was developing turned out to be rather less than helpful in those who received the product (aka the recipients died) and testing was halted.

I obtained some published background articles and a study on this phage preparation from Intralytix, all in .pdf format. PM me if anybody wants a copy.

On Edit: Freely available web copy of the study on Intralytix phage preparation. http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/full/69/ ... type=HWCIT