Europe's most prestigious advisory committee - the Scientific Committee on Food - has reversed its position over the safety of eating irradiated foods.

The SCF statement explained that the body cannot endorse moves to allow the irradiation of all foods above the current maximum irradiation dose limit of 10kGy. It said it could not support this move because not enough research has been done to assess the safety of eating foods irradiated at doses above this level.

The SCF statement is crucial as it comes shortly before a meeting in Tanzania of Codex - the international food-standards setting body - to decide whether the international standard governing food irradiation should be changed to allow any food to be irradiated above 10kGy. At the forefront in pushing for this weakening of the international food irradiation standard is the United States. However, the European Commission, speaking on behalf of the EU member states, has been resisting this move. The strong statement by the SCF serves to reinforce the EC position.

This latest statement by the SCF is in marked contrast to their comment in July last year, when they concluded that there was inadequate evidence of hazard from eating irradiated food and that such foods could be considered safe.

The SCF's statement in July was subsequently challenged in a letter to a limited number of addressees by EU-funded research scientists who had presented evidence of toxic compounds in irradiated fat-containing foods. The scientists repeated their concerns and emphasised that the chemicals formed in irradiated food "…present cytotoxic and genotoxic effects in cultured human cells, promote colon carcinogenesis in rats and accumulate in adipose tissues of rats fed with these compounds."