An Overview of Phytosanitary Irradiation Requirements for Australian Pests of Quarantine Concern

Humayra Akter (), Nancy Cunningham, Polychronis Rempoulakis and Martin Bluml
Additional contact information
Humayra Akter: South Australian Research and Development Institute, Department of Primary Industries and Regions SA, Urrbrae, SA 5000, Australia
Nancy Cunningham: South Australian Research and Development Institute, Department of Primary Industries and Regions SA, Urrbrae, SA 5000, Australia
Polychronis Rempoulakis: NSW Department of Primary Industries, Ourimbah, NSW 2258, Australia
Martin Bluml: Agriculture Victoria Research, Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Bundoora, VIC 3083, Australia

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Phytosanitary irradiation is used to prevent the introduction or spread of unwanted plant pests and diseases found in horticulture commodities, both in a domestic and international trade setting. Australia started exporting irradiated horticulture commodities to New Zealand in 2004. Since then, exports of irradiated products have continued to grow as phytosanitary irradiation has become more widely accepted for the treatment of plant pests by our international trading partners. Domestically, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) now allows irradiation of all fresh fruits and vegetables using an irradiation dose of 150 to 1000 Gy for all insect pests. To facilitate further domestic and international trade in Australian irradiated horticulture products, we conducted a literature review to perform the following: (1) identify information gaps (minimum absorbed irradiation dose) for Australian pests of quarantine concern, and (2) identify where differences may exist between the minimum absorbed dose and the regulated dose set, and that is accepted by Australia and key international trading partners. In Australia, a minimum absorbed dose of 400 Gy can be used to treat all insect pests of quarantine concern. However, a lower minimum absorbed dose of 150 Gy is used for many fruit fly species that are important for domestic and international trade. For a limited number of priority insect and non-insect pests highlighted by the horticulture sector, there were gaps found for minimum absorbed irradiation dose in the literature. These pests include Vineyard snail, Serpentine leaf miner and Fuller’s rose weevil. Studies to establish the minimum absorbed dose for Vineyard snails, Serpentine leaf miners and Fuller’s rose weevil are recommended. In addition to the gaps identified for irradiation dose, there is merit in conducting further research to refine (lower) the minimum absorbed dose for specific pests and priority commodities where irradiation has an impact on quality. A reduction in dose may not only benefit product quality but will also reduce both treatment time and cost.

Keywords: phytosanitary treatment; irradiation dose; insect; pests (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/4/771/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/4/771/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:4:p:771-:d:1108493

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().