What is the difference between irradiated food and organic food?

Answer 1

Officially "organic" foods are:

foods that are produced using methods that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers, do not contain genetically modified organisms, and are not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or chemical food additives

Food irradiation is performed by subjecting the food to ionizing radiation which kills pathogenic microorganisms, bacteria, viruses and insects. The irradiation damages the organism's DNA to the point that the organism cannot repair it - and can no longer proliferate and continue their malignant or pathogenic activities. The effect is similar to that achieved by pasteurization but whereas pasteurization achieves its effect by heat, irradiation does it by breaking apart molecules and inducing ionization.

Irradiated food does not become radioactive, but in some cases there may be small chemical changes.

Some potential differences are:

By killing the organisms that make spoiled food stink, irradiation might mask spoiled food.

The potential for causing chemical changes could lead to some degree of denaturing of nutritional components of the food or change the flavor of the food. There must be a balance between sufficient irradiation to get the good effects versus subjecting the food to so much irradiation that it starts to damage the food. This is similar to the issue of proper pasteurization where not enough heat will not sterilize the food versus too much heat cooking the food and changing its taste and texture.

In addition, some opponents of food irradiation sometimes worry that the widespread use of irradiation would allow increased processing, transportation, and handling times for fruits and vegetables thus contributing to a negative ecological balance compared to locally grown foods. Organic foods usually have to be sold fairly close to where they are produced since they tend to spoil quicker than irradiated food. If irradiated foods could be brought in from further away and remain unspoiled for longer, they could crowd out local produce - potentially supplanting local plants that are part of the local ecology with food grown in totally different climates. The loss or decrease in the prevalence of the local crops can lead to shifts in land use and disrupt the local ecology.

Answer 2

In organic foods they use pesticides to the minimum as they only use it on one crop (potatoes). Non-organic food use pesticides a lot more

Answer 3

Organic foods have not been treated with anything that is synthetic. Treated foods can be treated with anything that has been approved by the FDA for use in treating foods.