IAEA develops database for appropriate radiation treatment levels
Fresh produce such as fruits, vegetables and cut flowers must be disinfested of regulated pests before being shipped out of infested areas. The most commonly used phytosanitary treatments are cold, heat, chemical fumigants and, increasingly, ionizing irradiation. With increasing restrictions placed on the use of chemical fumigants, the use of commercial phytosanitary irradiation is steadily rising.
The new International Database on Commodity Tolerance (IDCT) screens and interprets technical information in the scientific literature about the quality of fruits and vegetables after they have received ionizing radiation as phytosanitary treatment. The data can be used to determine the maximum doses of radiation that different types of fresh commodities including fruits, vegetables and cut flowers can tolerate.
The database contains information on 89 fresh commodities and more are being added. “This information will help users optimize phytosanitary irradiation doses without having to go through hundreds of research papers on the topic,” said Guy Hallman, research entomologist at the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture, and one of the information architects of the database
Despite the recent growth in phytosanitary irradiation, which is now accepted by more than 60 importing countries, the total amount of fresh produce disinfested through irradiation remains rather small. In 2016, around 30 000 metric tons of fresh produce was irradiated worldwide, while 350 000 tons of mangoes were disinfested with a hot water treatment in Mexico alone.
source: iaea.org