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

[GrayStarNJ at aol.com]

Hi Franz,
 
I am not at liberty to talk about my customer's plans...but let me say  this: 
 There is no reason to irradiate pineapple.
 
The people who are presently irradiating products in Hawaii are Hawaii  
Pride.  Check out _www.hawaiipride.com_ (http://www.hawaiipride.com/) 
 
You can start believing that the products were irradiated on the  mainland a 
few years ago.  There were strict limitations such as pest tight  boxes and it 
had to be performed in areas which WILL NOT sustain fruit flies  (North of 
the Mason Dixon line.)  More specifically, they were irradiated  in Illinois and 
New Jersey.
 
Further, if handled properly (As defined and regulated by the USDA  APHIS 
PPQ), you can still irradiate imported products with pests on the  mainland.  You 
might want to go through the Federal Registers.
 
And you are right about the EU.  Europe is running about 10 years  behind the 
rest of the world on irradiation processing of foods.   The sad thing is that 
they used to be the leaders.
 
Hope this helps,
Russell


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