North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Rob Halgren <halgren@msu.edu>]

> > I don't think any "fresh produce" can be irradiated - that would kill
> > the cells, and it wouldn't keep.

I think it is all a matter of dose and time.  There is a dose which 
would destroy bacteria and virus, and probably beat the heck out of the 
fruit's DNA, but not result in damage to the cells themselves. 
Remember, in a ripe fruit the plant's cells are no longer dividing, they 
have done all the work they are going to do. So if you muck up their 
DNA, nobody cares and the mechanisms that induce cell death in response 
to DNA damage probably won't be invoked.

Since bacteria continue to divide and prosper after fruit ripening, they 
are most susceptible to radiation damage.  Hence, the right dose would 
kill bacteria, but might not affect fruit (vegetable) quality.

And, as everybody knows, irradiation doesn't make food radioactive... 
Just had to put that out there.  I used to irradiate blood for 
transfusions...  So if we can irradiate blood and have it still be 
useful, one presumes we can do that with other complex tissues (like 
green onions).

Rob  (misses green onions at restaurants)


--
Robert G. Halgren, Ph.D.
Bioinformatics Specialist
GTSF - Michigan State University
http://genomics.msu.edu
(517) 353-7236    -   halgren@msu.edu