Zapped mango imports break out in blotches The New Zealand Herald January 8, 2005 Nine tonnes of mangoes were imported recently as the first shipment of irradiated food to arrive here for human consumption, and many developed black spots or blotches. The mangoes bear a small yellow sticker saying: "Irradiated to protect the New Zealand environment." Importer Mark Needham, of Pukekohe firm Fusion Marketing, said he had received no refund claims from retailers and any blemishes could have been caused by mishandling after the mangoes left his care. "It's not irradiation that's broken them down - I don't know how they are handled after they leave us." Mr Needham said another 4.5 tonne consignment had arrived in excellent condition from the Brisbane irradiation plant of Steretech, a company which has tried several times since 1987 to open an operation in New Zealand. He hoped to import a shipment each week until the mango season ends next month. Mr Needham said the fruit was ripened on the tree, but he had asked his Australian agent to ensure mangoes were picked a few days earlier in future "to get a bit more shelf life and give the consumer a better deal". But Queensland grower Del Norman, who runs a medium-sized mango orchard south of Townsville with her husband Steve, was appalled to learn from the Herald that her fruit was irradiated before breaking out in blemishes. "That fruit should not be off," she said. "It should be still holding quite well if it's been refrigerated properly and I would say the irradiation is what's done it - most definitely. "I find that's pretty alarming. I didn't even know it was in New Zealand for a start. I didn't even know it was being irradiated and I am more than alarmed - if not totally alarmed - that it's breaking down after that time." Mrs Norman said the batch number on a box supplied to the Herald by the environmental group Friends of the Earth, which has been monitoring the mangoes at the Fruit World chain of shops in Auckland, showed it was picked and packed on December 13. She said a consignment picked the next day remained in very good condition within Australia. She was worried that the irradiated mangoes could damage the reputation of her orchard and spoil any chance of exporting fruit to New Zealand by more traditional means. The mangoes had already been treated with the insecticide dimethoate against Queensland fruitfly for the Australian market, and she wondered why they needed to be irradiated. Another of the three growers who supplied the first mango crop, Alex Johnson, was similarly unaware his fruit had been irradiated. Mr Needham said Government approval to import the fruit had not been granted until it was too late to consult growers, but he undertook to do so next season. Mrs Norman said she would find out how the mangoes got to New Zealand. Friends of the Earth spokesman Bob Tait, who campaigned against Steretech attempts to build a food irradiation plant here, wondered whether high doses of radiation from the isotope cobalt 60 may have chemically altered the dimethoate already in the fruit. He wondered if the blemishes were caused by a pathogen too small to have been damaged by radiation, or by some secondary infection which would have lost its natural immunity because of sterilisation. Food Safety Authority spokeswoman Sandra Daly said hundreds of reports over 15 years had shown irradiation to be safe. Irradiated mangoes now in NZ shops The New Zealand Herald December 21, 2004 Tuesday Nine tonnes of Australian tropical mangoes have been imported by a company called Fusion Marketing and are being sold by the Fruitworld chain of stores. The first consignment was flown in on Saturday from the Steritech cobalt 60 irradiation factory near Brisbane; the second arrived yesterday. Irradiation was cleared by the Ministry of Agriculture this year as an acceptable pest control measure after the intergovernmental body Food Standards Australia and New Zealand declared two years ago that irradiated food was not a threat to human safety. Until then only irradiated spices were allowed to be sold here and because of perceived consumer resistance virtually none has been imported. Queensland tropical fruits have long been off the menu for shoppers here because the levels of heat required to kill fruitfly also damage the fruit, or its appearance. But opponents of irradiation say the damage consumers don't see could be much worse. "I like Queensland mangoes but I wouldn't eat irradiated ones," Friends of the Earth spokesman Bob Tait said yesterday. "Cobalt 60 is a highly radioactive isotope. Hospitals use a few thousand curies of cobalt 60 whereas the Steritech plant uses 6 million or more. "You cannot damage the pests in the fruit without damaging the other chemicals, so it looks like a mango but its got other chemical changes." Fruitworld managing director Ronald Chan said he could see nothing wrong with irradiated fruit, having researched the process on the internet, and been assured it was fully approved by the Government. Each mango had a sticker on it saying it was irradiated, as required by law. "It's going to mean more fruit coming in for the consumer to choose," Mr Chan told the Herald. "Mexican mangoes are nowhere near as good as the Australian ones and they're treated by chemicals." But Green Party health spokeswoman Sue Kedgley said that was not the case. The South American mangoes were almost always steam-treated and there was no need to bring in the new ones.