Fruits & vegetable exporters can access new international markets with the use of food irradiation technology.

Food Irradiation is relatively new preservation technique whereby the food products are treated with ionizing radiation for getting some specific benefits including increase in shelf life, improved food safety and fulfilling quarantine requirements of different countries for importing agricultural products.

In Pakistan Food Irradiation technology have great potential to add value to different horticulture commodities including most of fruits and vegetables.

Food irradiation has the ability to destroy pathogenic (disease causing) organisms on different fruits & vegetables. Just like heat pasteurization of liquid foods like milk and juices, which effectively eliminates spoilage and pathogenic bacteria, inactivates spoilage enzymes, eliminates pests & insect infestation and extends shelf-life by delaying ripening of different fruits and vegetables. Some fruits and vegetables benefits of food irradiation technology are as under but are not limited to the described commodities.

Mangoes

Pakistan is among topmost producer of Mangoes but export is limited due to Quarantine issues of a pest known as fruit Fly from developed countries and Mangoes shelf life have also been responsible to limit its export mostly to middle east countries. Now Food irradiation provides effective solution to these issues. Food Irradiation eliminates insect infestation, fruit fly from mangoes and significantly adds to the shelf life of the fruit by delaying its ripening. It also improves the quality of fruit by reducing microbial load on the mangoes. Therefore technology gives hope for Pakistani mango exporters to access developed countries markets after treatment of food irradiation technology.

Dates

Dates are the third largest fruit exported from Pakistan. Pakistan is the sixth largest producer of dates in the world and therefore, holds a good share also in world exports

Dry dates are attacked by moth and beetle. With the use of methyl bromide being banned, irradiation has emerged as an attractive alternative for control of insect infestation in dates. Irradiation was found to eliminate the insect infestation of dates and Microbial counts are reduced immediately after irradiation and remain low till the end of 6 months storage period. So food irradiation adds to the shelf life of dates ensuring its availability for the longer time at the foreign shelf for the consumer.

Strawberries

Strawberries also appear to have a short shelf life due to spoilage. Food irradiation significantly improves the shelf life of strawberries by reducing their spoilage and the available microbial load on the fruit.

Onion and Potatoes

In Pakistan onion and potatoes are the important grown vegetables with significant proportion of exports with fluctuating trends to different countries. According to Codex Alimentarius, the purpose of irradiating onions and potatoes is to inhibit sprouting for increasing their shelf life. All research available for both these vegetables from different institutes supports food irradiation for sprout inhibition and to avoid weight loss and for improving shelf life purposes.

Particularly In Pakistan, for onions, there is no proper storage and preservation technique used. It is preferred to store them in open environment where there is enough ventilation available. They are not stored in cold stores. Sprouting in onions lead to causing a considerable reduction in its price, both in local and export markets. Therefore, irradiation treatment can be helpful for onions and potatoes for local traders, stockists and exporters.

Spices

Exports of spices from Pakistan have followed an upward trend during the last ten years. On an overall basis, the exports increased by 71% during this period.

The spices are often contaminated with high levels of bacteria, molds and yeasts. If left untreated, these spices will result in rapid spoilage of the foods they are supposed to enhance. Since this contamination is often with pathogenic bacteria, it can also result in serious food-borne illness.

As per ICGFI (International Consultative Group on Food Irradiation) ,the purpose of the irradiation is to decontaminate the spices, herbs and vegetable seasonings of micro-organisms and/or insect pests. Food irradiation technology significantly adds value to spices and ensures their quality for the international markets.

Dry Fruits

Mostly dry fruits including Fig, Raisin, Pistachio, Pine Nuts, Cashio Nuts, face insect infestation at some stage of their storage and some dry fruit like apricot being more sensitive even get infested at early phase of travel from mountains to plains of country.

Food Irradiation technology eliminates insect infestation and improves shelf life of the dryfruits.Food irradiation technology also helps dry fruit exporters in meeting international quarantine requirements of the developed countries.

Benefits of Food irradiation are widespread other than fruits and vegetables. it also adds value to pulses, rice, wheat, grains and cereals for insect infestation during their storage period. It is also found to eliminate the use of different chemicals and fumigants for preservation and storage. Technology has emerged as potential phytosanitory treatment under SPS regulations and bilateral agreements for the trade of irradiated food commodities are also underway between the nations. Keeping in view the international benefits for trade and potential of technology to reduce food borne diseases, Government of Pakistan also granted approval for the technology in 1996.Unfortunitly due to lake of irradiation facilities in the country technology have not been able to deliver optimum benefits for  horticulture commodities.