The FDA has approved a spray-on cocktail of six viruses for ready-to-eat meat (they say “meat and poultry,” but last time I checked, meat from chickens and turkeys was still meat).

The purified bacteriophages are designed to eat up the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium.

The bacterium 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 federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those, 500 die.

Perhaps newborns and pregnant women and people with compomised immune systems should simply avoid Oscar Weiners? Or is that too much to expect? I remember being careful about this kind of thing when I was pregnant. Hey, wasn’t listeriosis the reason my hubby was supposed to clean out the kitty litter box? Are you telling me that cat feces are in those slices of bologna?

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.

Oh, that gives me so much confidence, that does. I think I would still prefer a label saying so, so that people could make a choice. And regulation by the current Department of Agriculture is a joke. Maybe if they were doing their job for American consumers, we wouldn’t actually need spray-on viral coated food?

Intralytix, based in Baltimore, first petitioned the food agency in 2002 to allow the viruses to be used as an additive. It has since licensed the product to a multinational company, which intends to market it worldwide, Mr. Vazzana said.

They name the developer, but not the distributor. Not good. This “multi-national” company – who is it? Where is HQ?

Well, I’ve been waiting to see viruses used for good. I just wasn’t expecting to see the food supply as an early application. It’s probably a good idea in some ways, but there is some potential for things to go wrong. Seems like an easy target for bioterrorism to me. Also, I’m not sure why they would need six different kinds of viral bacteriophages. Why not just have one? Which viruses are they using, and what side effects might there be? What if the viruses themselves are contaminated, or what if conditions promote mutations? Then what?

Treatments that use bacteriophages to attack harmful bacteria have been a part of folk medicine for hundreds of years in India and for decades in the former Soviet Union.

I somehow don’t see folk medicine practitioners spraying viruses on food, do you?
What exactly were they doing in India and the former USSR? It would be good to know.