Radiated foods may be on menu

By Eugene Bingham

A ban on food treated with irradiation may be lifted to allow selected goods into the country.

The proposal would let importers sell products - mainly fruits, vegetables and spices - that have been exposed to radiation doses up to three million times stronger than an x-ray as a way of controlling pests and micro-organisms.

Food safety campaigners already predict a consumer backlash, while environmentalists question whether nuclear-free New Zealand should allow such produce on to its shores.

And agriculture authorities say the next step could be food irradiation plants in New Zealand.

The proposed change was announced yesterday by the Australia New Zealand Food Authority, the agency responsible for food standards in the two countries.

Dr Hugh Baber, the authority's New Zealand general manager, said public reaction to the proposal would be gauged by an eight-week consultation period.

The final decision would be left to a joint council of transtasman health ministers, including the Associate Minister of Health, Tuariki Delamere.

"Food irradiation is a very effective method of removing contamination and has been well researched and studied overseas," Dr Baber said.

Manufacturers were using it as an alternative to chemical cleansing and 41 countries allowed some level of food irradiation.

"Chemical processes have been widely used, but many of these are now in the process of being phased out and will become less available. We do have concerns about the effect they have on the environment."

Under the new standard, the irradiated food would be allowed into New Zealand or Australia only after it had been assessed by the authority.

The applicant would have to prove that it was technologically necessary, or essential for food hygiene, that the food was irradiated. The product would have to be labelled.

Author Sue Kedgley, who is convener of the Safe Food Campaign, said irradiation was an unnecessary technology.

"Consumers don't want to eat food that has been nuked," she said.

"There are alternative treatments, such as heat treatment, and I dispute that irradiation is safe."

Sue Kedgley said the long-term health effects were unknown, and the nutritional value of food would be depleted.

But Dr Gilliam Durham, the director of public health, said irradiation would be a weapon against rising instances of food-borne disease.

"It's not so much that the current treatment methods are ineffective, but globally people are not wanting the chemical treatments any more."

The national adviser at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Kevin Nader, said the proposals did not cover food irradiation operations in New Zealand, but that could be the next step.

Opening up the food industry could make such operations commercially viable.
Radiation technology is already used in the health sector.

Plans to build irradiation plants in Manukau in 1987 and Tokoroa and Mangakino in 1994 drew substantial opposition and were dropped.

Though they would have been capable of irradiating food, initially they were going to concentrate on other items, such as medical and laboratory supplies.

Pictured: Sue Kedgley.