[ RadSafe ] Re: Franz's Question on Irradiation of Fruits

[GrayStarNJ at aol.com]

Dear Franz,
 
To best answer your own question, please do a search on the Federal  Register 
on "irradiation" and "APHIS" for the last several years.  There  are many 
approvals. see _www.gpo.gov_ (http://www.gpo.gov)  for  access.  Yes, irradiation 
in approved in Hawaii and around the world for  phytosanitary applications.
 
To make a long story short, irradiated fruits have been shipped out of  
Hawaii for a couple of years now.  Prior to that they were irradiated on  the 
mainland.  I guess someone is buying them.
 
Don't worry, to my knowledge, Austria does not require that the products be  
irradiated prior to import.
 
One technical note:  With the exception of products for the space  program, 
no food products are "sterilized".   Sterilization is to  assure that virtually 
all bacteria are killed.  The purpose of the  irradiation to fruits is to 
kill fruit flies at a dose of only 1/100th. that of  what is required to 
"sterilize" the product.
 
Hope that helps,
Russell
 
Russell N. Stein
Vice President
GRAY*STAR, Inc.
 

Russell,

This posting seems to indicate that irradiation  sterilisation has now
been finally approved for export of all kind of  foodstuff like
pineapples and probably other plants as well from Hawaii.  Having visited
Hawaii several times and having followed the thread on  economically
based resistance to fruit irradiation I take your e-mail as  an
indication that this resistance has been more or less broken. 

I  believe that not only me, but many other RADSAFErs would be interested
in a  short description of the current legislation on irradiation of food
as  applicable in Hawaii. 

Best regards,

Franz

Franz  Schoenhofer
PhD, MR iR
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160  Vienna
AUSTRIA
phone -43-0699-1168-1319