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

[Franz Schönhofer]

Thank you, Russell for taking your time on Easter Monday to answer my
question. 
 
I probably should have written more about the background of my question
– I’ll do it now:
 
As I mentioned, I have been several times to Hawaii, last time I flew in
on Oct. 27, 2001 to participate in a radiochemistry conference, which
was previously known as the BAER conference. Yes, October 2001! I was
one of the rather few together with my younger son who flew into Hawaii,
which was touristically heavily affected by the aftermath of the terror
attacks. 
 
After all my visits to Hawaii (since about 1990) luggage was on
departure checked either carefully or at random for export of plants and
fruits and was marked accordingly with an “inspected” tab. Plants I took
with me had to have a certificate that they were nematode free. (Well,
they did anyway not survive many Austrian winters
) 
 
Regarding the irradiation of pineapples I read in a US food-science
journal at least 10 years ago at my former Institute of Food Control and
Research a letter of a Hawaiian very high-level executive (senator? or
even governor?) on this subject, accusing a certain Californian Lobby to
prevent irradiation of pineapples (and fruits) in the whole USA
including Hawaii in order to get rid of the Hawaiian competition. Your
“couple of years” may well coincide with my observations. I just wonder
how the Hawaiian pineapples can compete financially with all those from
Thailand and South-American competitors. Though export of canned
Hawaiian pineapples was never affected by the question of irradiation I
cannot remember ever to have seen Hawaiian pineapples in cans in
Austria. Remembering the vast pineapple fields on Oahu I believe there
must be a market somewhere. 
 
Sorry for a respectful disagreement, I cannot believe that pineapples
were shipped out to the US mainland and irradiated there – the export
ban was because of the fruit flies and any transport to the mainland
would have distributed them on the mainland and been counterproductive. 
 
I have been working for years at my former Institute for Food Control
and Research – theoretically – on the question of irradiation of food.
Probably because I personally had no objections this working field was
taken from me, so I have not followed the development very closely
during the last years. Only recently the import of irradiated spices has
been legalized, otherwise irradiation of food and import of irradiated
food is still forbidden. The member states of the European Union have no
uniform legislation on food-irradiation. 
 
Thank you again for your response and best wishes,
 
Franz
 
Franz Schoenhofer
PhD, MR iR
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
AUSTRIA
phone (international) -43-699-1168-1319
phone (national) 0699-1168-1319
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: GrayStarNJ at aol.com [mailto:GrayStarNJ at aol.com] 
Gesendet: Montag, 28. März 2005 16:55
An: franz.schoenhofer at chello.at; radsafe at radlab.nl
Betreff: Re: Franz's Question on Irradiation of Fruits
 
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 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