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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Fruit Labels

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  • From: list@ginda.us
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Fruit Labels
  • Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 20:36:37 -0500


On Dec 18, 2003, at 8:12 AM, loneroc wrote:

Almost all dried spices are irradiated and have been so for many years.
There is no requirement that these be labeled. I think that besides
eliminating mold and bacterial contamination, it allows the plant material
to avoid APHIS inspections and other related issues. Doesn't bother me.
I've been irradiated during visits to the dentist and doctors' offices for
years.

I am glad that spices are irradiated. They come from all over the world, were harvested with who-knows-what sanitation, and I don't always cook them prior to eating them. (Dust some nutmeg on the eggnog, chew on a cinnamon stick, whatever.) I'd prefer they be labeled so I can be sure of buying the irradiated ones, but I guess that's most of them, so maybe it doesn't matter.


I would not purchase irradiated foods in general, though. Not because I'm
'afeared' of the radiation, but rather that such foods are inevitably
produced by industrial/non-sustainable agricultural practices.

I would, just as I purchase canned goods, frozen food, and other preserved products. While I don't think you're allowed to call it "organic" if it's been irradiated (you could have under the draft law, but there was a public outcry) there's nothing to prevent sustainably grown stuff from being irradiated, nor is much of the competing non-irradiated produce sustainably grown. To go even further off topic, I think the greatest promise for irradiation lies in meat products - again, I wish they were labeled. Yes, it's sometimes better to blanch veggies to inactivate enzymes that break them down, but fruits and veggies are often better when the cells are still alive, and I'm dubious that that's true if it's been irradiated. The point, after all, is to kill bacteria and fungi, which are fairly tough.

Ginda





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