Dairy Queen to Sell Irradiated Burgers in the Twin Cities
The Associated Press
Published: Jul 9, 2002

EDINA, Minn. (AP) - International Dairy Queen will begin serving irradiated ground beef at several Twin Cities stores this week.

By next week, irradiated beef will be available in 43 Minnesota stores - roughly one-third of the Dairy Queens in the state that sell hamburgers.

The company is one of the first in the $115 billion fast-food industry to sell ground beef that is irradiated, a government-approved process that kills bacteria and reduces the chance of food-borne illnesses.

"Anytime you're a leader, it's a little scary. But we're confident in the process," said Dean Peters, Dairy Queen spokesman.

As of Tuesday, Twin Cities stores in Maple Grove, Delano, Plymouth, Anoka, Woodbury, Bloomington and Minnetonka were selling irradiated burgers. An additional 23 stores will come on line in the next few days.

Dairy Queen began testing the sale of irradiated ground beef this year in Hutchinson and Spicer, then added 11 central Minnesota stores in May. Customers receive information at the stores and are encouraged to call a survey line to express their views on the product.

After an initial 60 days, the company will evaluate responses.

The company's franchisees pay about 5 cents a pound more for the irradiated ground beef, but have not passed the increase on to consumers, Peters said.

AP-ES-07-09-02 2230EDT

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