Action Alert:Send an E-card to Turners & 'Glowers' nowHelp keep irradiated food out of New Zealand Until now, the only irradiated food items imported into New Zealand are some spices and herbal products. But that may be about to change. Turners & Growers, the New Zealand company synonymous with fresh, wholesome fruit and vegetables has won approval, firstly from Food Standards Australia New Zealand, and then from MAF Biosecurity, to import irradiated mangoes from Australia. The first shipments are expected later this year - unless Turners and Growers can be persuaded that consumers do not want to eat irradiated food and it is therefore a commercially bad decision to import irradiated fruit. The government has failed to listen to the health arguments - that irradiated mangoes contain radiolytic products that are carcinogenic (2 ACBs) - and to biosecurity arguments - that these mangoes come from a fruit-fly infested area and any human or mechanical error in the irradiation process could result in live fruit fly entering New Zealand and jeopardising our horticultural industries. The government won't listen, so now it is up to consumers to use their consumer power to stop this importation before it starts. Even if you don't eat mangoes, this issue is still of vital importance to you. Other players in the food industry are waiting in the wings to see how well consumers accept this irradiated fruit. Unless we make it quite clear we don't want a bar of it, the flood gates will be opened and many other irradiated foods will find there way onto shop shelves. We have been told that other horticultural sectors are interested in irradiating their produce, as are some meat processors. For
more information check out our Nuclear-Free web page at Don't delay, click on the card below to show your opposition.
August 2004 |
