Rule change to serve up irradiated salad
Australian demands to irradiate imported fruit and veg set to overturn long-term Kiwi opposition. Eugene Bingham reports.
More imported fresh fruits and vegetables treated with irradiation could soon be on sale on New Zealand shelves if a rule change goes through.
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) is expected to finalise the change this month, despite 95 per cent of submissions being opposed to the plan.
FSANZ acknowledged the treatment could reduce nutritional value, although it says this is minimal. The organisation decided irradiation was a safe and effective biosecurity tool, and will help open up export markets, bringing Australia and New Zealand into line with other countries.
Long-time irradiation campaigner, Bob Tait, of Friends of the Earth, sees this as an example of New Zealand’s loss of food sovereignty – a historic stance against the treatment has been gradually whittled away. ‘‘That has allowed the situation now where within this month there’s likely to be formal approval from an Australian-dominated body to allow the importation of fruit and vegetables from Australia to be irradiated.’’
New Zealand has one seat on the ministerial forum that oversees FSANZ, with Food Safety Minister Ayesha Verrall sitting alongside Australian state and federal ministers. The forum is expected to notify FSANZ of its view on the change by July 8 – if there’s no objection, the rule will come into force soon afterwards.
The irradiation application was made by the Queensland Government, which sought the change to allow for any fresh fruit or vegetables to be treated with irradiation to kill pests.
The process involves exposing products to ionising radiation: either gamma rays, a high-energy electron beam, or X-rays.
The treatment can be used for 26 specified produce items, including imported tomatoes. Queensland mangoes were approved for irradiation in 2004 and the list grew between 2011 and 2016 to include other produce, such as tomatoes and capsicums.
The latest rule change would allow for any fruit or vegetable to be treated if necessary, including vegetables such as asparagus.
The application estimated about 8 per cent of fruits and 0.3 per cent of vegetables imported to New Zealand would be irradiated, if the rule changed.
Verrall says the measure is needed to protect against pests. ‘‘For example, exotic fruit flies pose a major threat to New Zealand’s horticulture industry and Kiwi home gardens.’’
She was satisfied there were no public health or safety concerns about the treatment, and the recommendation had been reviewed by Food Safety NZ, a unit of the Ministry for Primary Industries, which ‘‘agreed there are no public health or safety concerns associated with irradiation’’.
In its submission to FSANZ, Food Safety NZ raised the issue of furans – a cancer-causing compound produced as part of the treatment – although it believed the risks were low compared with exposure from other sources. But because of the risk, ‘‘levels in food should be kept as low as reasonably achievable’’.
FSANZ heard evidence the micronutrient content of some fruit and vegetables was reduced by the irradiation process – in most cases by a small amount, but higher in others. Overall, though, FSANZ did not consider the impact was enough to have anything more than minimal implications for the country’s overall nutrient intake.
Of the 456 objections to the change, some raised nutritional impact.
‘‘As more and more people are changing their diets to include greater proportions of plant foods it is morally and ethically irresponsible to be introducing legislation which reduces the health benefits of these foods,’’ said one.
GE Free NZ said the authority was putting profits before people.
‘‘FSANZ’s assessment on the need for irradiation should be made on the quality and safety of food, not on trade and market disruption.’’
But the NZ Food and Grocery Council supported the change, saying there should be a broad