Food Irridation --- Australia Problem
"The WTO agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS) would open the floodgates for imported irradiated foods to enter Australia, decimating what's left of our family farms."
"Irradiation would eliminate Fire Blight from New Zealand apples, Pierces disease from Californian grapes and Black Sigatoka from Philippine bananas, all of which are currently excluded by quarantine laws on the basis that they would endanger our environment. The irradiation process treats food with high doses of radiation, killing all living microorganisms, pests and diseases."
"The Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS) Agreement is a back door measure designed to break down technical barriers to trade, such as Australia's strong quarantine laws."
"In trade disputes, it will be very difficult for Australia to advance scientific reasons as to why irradiated food imports should be kept out of the Australian market, particularly as the federal government has now approved an Australian application to irradiate tropical fruits and export the fruits to overseas markets."
"The promise that our farmers will benefit from new export markets if they irradiate produce is complete nonsense. A few years down the track, a WTO dispute resolution panel is likely to rule that what goes out can also come in - and our producers will come under attack from cheap imported foods including beef, pork, poultry, seafood and fresh fruits and vegetables," Senator Harris said.
He also warned of a consumer backlash against irradiated foods. "Apart from the adverse health effects which occur when food is bombarded with high doses of radiation, consumers are angry over what they see as PR spin doctoring by companies that describe irradiation as 'cold pasteurisation'. Associating irradiation with the every day safety of milk pasteurisation is a scandal. It's like Monsanto describing Genetic Engineering as Genetic Manipulation," Senator Harris said.
ENDS
Further details: Senator Harris 07 40923194
M E D I A B R I E F I N G
Imported food will flood Australian markets 1 April 2003
What is food irradiation? Irradiation blasts food with the equivalent radiation of hundreds of millions of chest X-rays. These high levels of radiation initiate a complex sequence of reactions that literally rip apart the molecular structure of the food. This process creates new and unidentified chemicals that have not been proven safe. One such chemical, known as 2-DBC, has been shown to cause genetic damage in rats and in human cell cultures. This chemical has never been found naturally in any food on Earth and is a well-known "marker" for determining whether food has been irradiated. Irradiated food is depleted of its nutrients.
According to the US Food and Drug Administration's own scientists, irradiation destroys up to 80 per cent of vitamin A in eggs and half of the beta-carotene in orange juice. This problem is compounded by lengthened shelf life, because as food sits in storage, its nutritional content declines. If irradiated foods are stored longer and shipped further from the farm, these foods will arrive at the dinner table with nearly no nutritional value.
There are two types of food irradiation:
Gamma irradiation
Food is exposed to a radioactive source such as cobalt rods made from reprocessed nuclear power plant wastes. The radioactive rods are raised up out of a storage pond as pallets or boxes of food pass through the irradiation chamber on a conveyer belt. The cobalt rods are highly radioactive and must be stored in accordance to strict safety requirements. Many accidents involving leakage and radioactive contamination have been documented at food irradiation plants. Irradiation plants could be terrorist targets.
E-beam or electron beam irradiation
Also known as electronic pasteurisation, cold processing or cold pasteurisation, this process uses linear accelerators to generate ionising radiation (electron beams) for food processing. Like a television set, e-beam irradiation devices produce electrons from a heated filament sitting inside a vacuum tube. Magnetic fields accelerate the electrons through the tube until they reach energies as high as 10 million electron volts. At the end of the tube, meat, fruit or other food is irradiated as it slides by on a conveyor belt. Once electricity is turned off, the radiation stops. A linear accelerator delivers more radiation per second than gamma rays, so it may work more quickly than a cobalt or based gamma irradiator.
The length of time that the food is exposed to the radioactive source is known as the "dose" that the food receives. The dosage is measured in KiloGrey (kGy). Of special interest to is the ongoing work by WHO (World Health Organisation). The WHO works in partnership with other UN bodies including the International Atomic Energy Agency (AEA), and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). In January 1998, the WHO issued a report on the conclusions of a joint FAO/IAEA/WHO study group on high dose irradiation above 10 kGy, which stated: "food irradiated to any dose appropriate to achieve the intended technological objective was both safe to consume and nutritionally adequate. Hence no upper limit needed to be imposed for food irradiation."
Trade of irradiated food
Food irradiation is increasingly accepted and applied as a sanitary and phytosanitary treatment for many types of food products. With pending further regulatory approvals of major food trading nations such as the USA, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union, trade in commodities such as irradiated fresh fruits and vegetables, spices and dried vegetable seasonings, meat and poultry, seafood, etc. is expected to increase significantly in the near future.
The moratorium on food irradiation in Australia was lifted in 1999 and two applications for food irradiation in Australia have been successful.
1. The first application by Steritech, to irradiate herbs, spices and teas was approved by the federal government food regulator in 2001. Steritech is currently constructing an irradiation plant in the Brisbane suburb of Narangba.
2. The second application to irradiate tropical fruits for export was approved in 2002 by the federal government food regulator. Surebeam (a subsidiary of Titan Corporation) is expected to construct an irradiation facility in Far North Queensland.
Applications to irradiate other 'classes' of foods such as meat, fruit and vegetables, cereals and fish are expected soon. Spin doctoring The spin doctoring and propaganda of the food irradiation industry is a case of history repeating itself. When the genetic structure of our food was first tampered with, Monsanto described the process as 'Genetic Engineering'. This description was quickly dropped for the more acceptable 'Genetic Modification' or simply GM. The irradiation companies are now re-badging their technology, describing food irradiation as cold pasteurization, or likening the procedure to the harmless pasteurisation of milk. See for example www.surebeam.com, which says: "Like milk pasteurisation, the SureBeam process makes food safer. It irradiates harmful bacteria like E.coli from food." Irradiation Facts & Figures -Irradiation is now accepted for one or more food products or classes of food in some 50 countries. Commercial application of food irradiation is allowed in over 30 countries.
- Commercial irradiation of spices and dried vegetable seasonings occurs in over 20 countries, including Australia, with the global production approaching 100,000 metric tonnes/annum.
- Irradiated ground beef (mince) and tropical fruits are being sold in an increasing number of supermarket stores in the United States. A major fast food chain started selling irradiated hamburgers in 2002 and was joined by several other chain restaurants which now offer irradiated foods in their menus.
- US Department of Agriculture's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service issued its Final Rule on Irradiation Phytosanitary Treatment of Imported Fresh Fruits and Vegetables on October 23, 2002, to pave the way for international trade in irradiated fresh produce to meet phytosanitary requirements. This ruling will have implications if the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement proceeds.
- Several Asian, Africa and Latin American countries have already strengthened their regulatory infrastructure and are in a position to implement international trade in some irradiated food commodities immediately.
- Potential importers of irradiated food products will meet with exporters to plan future activities under the guidance of world leaders and experts in food irradiation. They will converge at the First World Congress on Food Irradiation to be held in Chicago, in May this year.
More information Senator Harris has prepared a comprehensive Briefing Paper on the SPS and its potential impacts upon Australian consumers and family farmers. The Briefing Paper includes the following topics:
Family farms, not factory farms
- Food self sufficiency verses food security
- WTO & the global food trade
- Food irradiation
- Consumer concerns
- About the SPS Agreement
- About the SPS Agreement For copies of the paper or further details about this subject, please telephone Senator Harris on 07 4092 3194 or email senator.harris@aph.gov.au
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