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BRUSSELS: International food experts will soon discuss revising — if not abandoning — the maximum dose for irradiation, an idea that has stirred opposition from the European Union and infuriated numerous consumer lobby groups.
While most scientists have accepted irradiation as a processing technique, consumers and environmentalists have their doubts about foods that are blasted with high-energy radiation in the form of gamma or X-rays to kill unwanted micro-organisms.
Now, the recommended upper limit for absorbed radiation in food may be removed altogether if a committee of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, due to meet in Tanzania in mid-March, can reconcile wide differences of opinion among its members.
“If they are successful a final text will be submitted to the Codex Alimentarius Commission for formal adoption in June,” a Codex official said from the organisation’s home base in Rome.
“If they cannot agree, we can expect a two-year delay.”
The concept of irradiating conventional food by bombarding it with ionizing energy has long generated extreme views — and a meeting last year of Codex members ended in deadlock when a proposal was tabled to delete all reference to a maximum dose.
Irradiation, endorsed by the World Health Organization, exposes food to low amounts of electrons or gamma rays to destroy micro-organisms such as E.coli and salmonella. It causes chemical changes, but does not leave food radioactive.
Codex, which groups officials from the United Nations FAO and World Health Organization, sets non-binding recommendations for food standards often used as the benchmark in international trade disputes. It has members from more than 160 countries.
DEADLOCK OVER DOSAGE: Since the last major Codex meeting on irradiation, a working group has drafted a compromise proposal that keeps a maximum dose but also inserts a controversial clause saying that high-dose irradiation has no effect on product safety.
In a standard dating from 1983, Codex sets the maximum level of absorbed permitted irradiation in food at 10,000 Gray (Gy), which represents 10,000 joules of absorbed energy per kilogramme.
Despite the compromise Codex wording, agreement on whether to remove or keep a maximum dose is still a long way off and observers say the debate could still go either way.
“This document will be discussed and may, or may not, be agreed at that (March) meeting,” said Merav Shrub at Britain’s Food Commission, an independent watchdog group. “It may just get postponed with further debate for another year.”
“What they are proposing is a compromise to keep the 10 kGy dose limit but with a comment saying that it’s absolutely safe at any dose anyway. It’s a bit contradictory,” she said.
Several countries, including most EU member states backed by Japan and South Korea, are opposed to removing this maximum dose.
In the European Commission, officials are wary about the idea of removing the upper limit, saying the resulting large-scale irradiation might flout good hygiene practices.
At present, the EU permits food to be irradiated under only one category: dried aromatic herbs, spices and vegetable seasonings. All irradiated foods must be properly labelled with the words “irradiated” or “treated with ionising radiation”.
Five EU member states also allow the marketing of certain irradiated foods such as fresh and dried fruits and vegetables, poultry, shrimps, fish or frog legs on their national territory.
The United States, Australia, the Philippines and Thailand lie on the other side of the argument and claim that the dose is self-limiting as amounts above 10,000 Gy are only technically feasible for a few dry commodities such as spices.
“Foods with a higher moisture content will not support high doses,” said the Codex official. “The flavour changes for the worse and manufacturers will not use high doses because of this. Also, high doses are expensive.”
Advocates of unlimited irradiation argue they need a wide technical scope to meet their national food regulations. They say if irradiation is applied properly it reduces food-borne disease and treats many potential problems in the food supply.
Irradiation can deactivate food spoilage organisms, including bacteria, moulds and yeasts. It can also extend the shelf-life of fresh fruits and vegetables by decreasing the normal biological changes associated with growth and maturation — such as ripening or sprouting.—Reuters
