What these three words have in common is that they are all very familiar to consumers, but some of the terms may be more familiar than you might expect.

The increasing public awareness of foodborne illness as well as highly publicized food recalls have prompted consumers to accept irradiation as an effective food safety tool, according to the National Food Safety & Toxicology Center. In addition, the organization reports, the number of supermarkets that offer irradiated meat has jumped from 84 in June of 2000 to 7,000 stores in 50 retail chains today.