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Irradiation--California's
Perspective
The loss of methyl bromide for agricultural uses will hurt California's
import and export trade, according to David Luscher. "It is vital that we
identify, evaluate, and develop all possible alternative quarantine
treatments," Luscher said at the San Diego conference. "We are currently
looking at how we might integrate irradiation treatment into our current
plant quarantine program. When supplemented with additional controls,
irradiation is an excellent potential alternative treatment to methyl
bromide."
An associate agricultural biologist with the Pest Exclusion Branch of the
California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), Luscher said there
are apparently no regulatory issues that would restrict use of irradiation
on food or hinder the sale of treated products in California. He also said
that CDFA supports the work of USDA and
the Hawaii Department
of Agriculture to irradiate Hawaiian fruits regulated under Federal
quarantine.
"I understand that the success of this work will provide justification to
erect a commercial irradiation facility in Hawaii," he said. "We have
also been cooperating with the ARS Miami laboratory to irradiate papayas,
sweetpotatoes, blueberries, and longans."
Luscher said that CDFA's concern with using irradiation as a quarantine
treatment is how to address irradiated pests that are still alive on
treated commodities that enter California.
"Unlike methyl bromide, irradiation targets reproductive and developmental
abilities of a pest, often without killing it. Currently, there is no
quick, reliable field test to determine whether or not live pests have
been irradiated."
But the CDFA does not think this is an insurmountable obstacle. Luscher
said that the irradiation treatment could be supplemented with
pretreatment inspection actions that begin in the field and continue
through harvest, processing, and treatment. And even though no one action
would eliminate pests, the cumulative result should reduce the probability
of live pest infestation on arrival in California to an acceptable
level.
"What we need is agreement among USDA, our trading partner States, and
industry as to what an acceptable confidence level will be on irradiated
commodities. Also, we all need to decide on what actions will be taken if
a live quarantine pest is found on a treated shipment," Luscher
added.
According to Luscher, the Jamaican papaya industry and the Florida
sweetpotato, blueberry, and longan industries have asked CDFA to allow
irradiation to fulfill quarantine requirements for their produce to enter
California.
"We're investigating the possibility of allowing commercial shipments of
specific irradiated commodities to enter California under special permit,"
he said. "Jennifer Sharp, research leader at the ARS
Subtropical Horticulture Research Station in Miami, has been helping
us develop and generate treatment data on these commodities to support
this effort."
As a result of this work, papayas grown in Jamaica and irradiated
by the Food Technology Service in Florida to eliminate the Caribbean fruit
fly, were shipped into California as a one-time entry for the Produce
Marketing Association Exposition in October 1995.
Luscher said that, currently, fresh blueberries from areas regulated for
the blueberry maggot and plum curculio cannot enter California without
methyl bromide fumigation. Although Florida-produced commercial longans
aren't regulated under any California plant quarantine, they're often
rejected because of infestation by species of scales and mealybugs, which
are quarantine pests. Sharp is working with CDFA and with the Florida
longan and blueberry industries on an appropriate irradiation treatment
for these crops.
Florida-grown sweetpotatoes are prohibited from California markets because
of the sweetpotato weevil. Since sweetpotatoes can't tolerate fumigation
with methyl bromide, Sharp is working with the Florida Department of
Agriculture and Consumer Services to establish data on an irradiation
treatment that CDFA will accept, hopefully opening a new market for
Florida growers and California consumers.
Luscher contacted three of California's largest fresh fruit industry
groups to get their reaction to using irradiation as an acceptable
quarantine treatment.
"I found industry supportive of irradiation as a quarantine treatment," he
said. "In fact, they would like to see similar efforts to develop
irradiation quarantine treatments so that California commodities can
continue to be exported should methyl bromide use be restricted or
lost."
[January 1996 Table of Contents]
[Newsletter
Issues
Listing]
[Methyl Bromide Home
Page]
[ARS Home Page]
[USDA Home Page]
Last Updated: October 23, 1996
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