Remember irradiated foods, how people were afraid of it. I wonder if it will be more widely used now

[TheBlackAdder]

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It's in used by many food industries, just that people forget its existence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_irradiation#United_States_2

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[FBaggins]

1. Why more widely used now?

Food irradiation isn’t for viruses.

[TheBlackAdder]

2. some or all of the pathogenic organisms, microorganisms, bacteria, and viruses present are destroyed

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It's right in the link.

Irradiation is used to reduce or eliminate the risk of food-borne illnesses, prevent or slow down spoilage, arrest maturation or sprouting and as a treatment against pests. Depending on the dose, some or all of the pathogenic organisms, microorganisms, bacteria, and viruses present are destroyed, slowed down, or rendered incapable of reproduction. Irradiation cannot return spoiled or over-ripe food to a fresh state. If this food was processed by irradiation, further spoilage would cease and ripening would slow down, yet the irradiation would not destroy the toxins or repair the texture, color, or taste of the food.[17] When targeting bacteria, most foods are irradiated to significantly reduce the number of active microbes, not to sterilize all microbes in the product. In this respect it is similar to pasteurization.
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It may seem reasonable to assume that irradiating food might lead to radiation-tolerant strains, similar to the way that strains of bacteria have developed resistance to antibiotics. Bacteria develop a resistance to antibiotics after an individual uses antibiotics repeatedly. Much like pasteurization plants, products that pass through irradiation plants are processed once, and are not processed and reprocessed. Cycles of heat treatment have been shown to produce heat-tolerant bacteria, yet no problems have appeared so far in pasteurization plants. Furthermore, when the irradiation dose is chosen to target a specific species of microbe, it is calibrated to doses several times the value required to target the species. This ensures that the process randomly destroys all members of a target species.[40] Therefore, the more irradiation-tolerant members of the target species are not given any evolutionary advantage. Without evolutionary advantage, selection does not occur. As to the irradiation process directly producing mutations that lead to more virulent, radiation-resistant strains, the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Food found that there is no evidence; on the contrary, irradiation has been found to cause loss of virulence and infectivity, as mutants are usually less competitive and less adapted.[41]

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[LeftInTX]

3. Food-borne

Cornonavirus is not food-borne

[canetoad]

4. I'd guess that most fresh food

Is irradiated now. Aldi fruit & veg last a preternaturally long time in the fridge.

This was first used when? Twenty, fifteen years ago? I read about it at the time; there were the usual nut cases saying, "Your food is bombarded with radiation" and ""your food could be rotten but irradiation masks the smell".

Scientific articles I read said it was safe. At about the same time it was made know that there was no compulsion to put on the label that the food had been irriadiated.

In general I believe most humans consume far too much food of which they don't know the provedence. I'm aware that it's impossible to trace the journey of much of our foodstuffs. The more processing steps involved, the harder it is.

This must be weighed against budget and cooking/preparation skills; in other words, do the best you can to eat fresh foods but don't beat yourself about the head if your can't afford organic food.