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Re: Food irradiation---do seeds sprout? Did that denature



.  "Food irradiation is replacing the use of ethylene oxide and methyl bromide and is less harmful to the spice than either heat or ethylene oxide, is more effective against bacteria than ethylene oxide, and does not leave chemical residues on products"  Issue Paper Number 7, April 1996  Council for Agricultural Science and Technology

   P.Milligan Sullivan
   pxm@nrc.gov

>>> "Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@hotmail.com> 04/03 11:26 AM >>>
>speculative data as to its "harmful" effects).  As for spices, those >that 
>are not irradiated, are treated with chemicals, typically a gas >to kill 
>all of the bugs and other good things that would come along >with your 
>allspice and other exotic spices.  (I'm sure that most >people prefer not 
>to see their spices crawl off the table.)  This gas can leave a residue on 
>the spices.

If the gas is ethylene oxide, EO, chlorinated two-carbon compounds are 
formed which are carcinogenic/mutagenic. (I am - in collaboration with a few 
other scientists - studying the DNA damaging capacity of some of these small 
organic chemicals BTW (EO, propylene oxide and epichlorohydrine) - the 
bottom line for me is - "no ethylene oxide treatment of my foods").

My personal thoughts only,

Bjorn Cedervall  bcradsafers@hotmail.com 

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