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       Last Modified: 11/26/2009