China's movetofood irradiationThe tableis being setfor commercialization

by Lothar H. Wedekind

More than a thousand years ago, during theTang Dynasty, the beautiful Queen Yang mayhave set the tone for Chinese determination toovercome problems of food supply. Historyteaches she ordered teams of riders on horsebackto deliver fresh lychee from southern Fujian wherethe fruit was grown to northern Xian where it wasin high demand, a distance of about 2000 kilome-tres. With a racehorse distribution chain of ridersgalloping day and night, the goods reportedly weredelivered in just about three days.

China has historically fought to balance foodsupplies and demands, and regional shortages dueto natural and other causes remain a serious con-cern. Though the world's most populous country,China only has about one-fifteenth of the earth'sarable land. The nation can ill afford food waste,or to ignore potential weapons against it.

Increasing food production alone may not be theanswer for China, or for other developing States. Pres-sures on food supplies will heighten in developingnations as the overall population is expected to grow by45% over the next 15 years, notes the Food and Agricul-ture Organization (FAO), yet already nearly three ofevery four people in the Third World live in countriesshort of productive land.

Not surprisingly, given the needs and outlook, manydeveloping countries are taking the lead in moving topromote commercialization of food irradiation.Although the preservation process, like others, is notpractical or effective for all foods, irradiation has provedit can safely and effectively help extend supplies byprolonging storage times and reducing losses to spoilageand waste of specific food items.

Palace Museum, Beijing.Inset: Display promoting foodirradiation in Shanghai. (Credit:Wedekind)

Mr Wedekind, editor of the IAEA Bulletin, served as press officer atthe Shanghai seminar.

In the bustling port of Shanghai, home of 12 millionpeople and long the heart of China's industrial and com-mercial progress, the table is being set.

In January 1986, the first of five regional irradiationfacilities planned in the country mainly to process foodsofficially opened in Shanghai. Irradiated potatoes,mushrooms, rice, onions, garlic, peanuts, pork sausage,and, soon, apples will be introduced in mass marketingtrials as part of economic feasibility tests.

One trial run late last year of 25 tons of labelledirradiated apples sold out in under two days, eventhough they were treated to hold for months in storage,reports Mr Cao Xue Xin, an engineer at Shanghai'sScience and Technology Commission involved in theproject. Marketing research has become integral to stepsbeing taken in China to help determine commercial via-bility and consumer acceptance of irradiated foods.

"It is very important to develop food irradiation ...and, in a word, we are actively and carefully heading

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Racks of boxed apples move automatically to the irradiationchamber at the Shanghai facility. (Credit: Wedekind)

towards commercialization," says Mr Zhou Ping, vice-chairman of the Chinese State Council's Leading Groupon Nuclear Power, a body of senior policymakers whoset the country's priorities in nuclear and related fields.

While no one is reported to be going hungry in China,food security, seasonal shortages, and the nutritionalquality of the Chinese diet are topics drawing acuteattention, according to Mr Lu Liangshu, Director of theChinese Academy of Agricultural Science. Under thecountry's modernization drive, food irradiation is beingpromoted as a tool that fits.

Rapid development planned

Mr Zhou and other Chinese officials outlined China'spast and future directions at a recent international foodirradiation seminar in Shanghai sponsored by the FAOand IAEA. The meeting was attended by about 170 par-ticipants from China and 22 other countries, primarilyfrom the Asian and Pacific region where activities areaccelerating to promote technology transfer, govern-mental and consumer acceptance, and regulatory har-mony in the field. Three food irradiation plants currentlyare operating in the region and 14 more are planned overthe next 5 years.

If current plans hold in China, the nation will emergeas far more than the regional leader in demonstratingfood irradiation's potential.

Besides the Shanghai facility, four other commercial-size demonstration plants are reported being builtprimarily for food irradiation near provincial capitals:Chengdu in the southwest; Zhengzhou in the north;Nanjing near the eastern coast; and Lanzhou in theChinese interior. Operations are expected to start at allfour within the year.

Additionally, other irradiation facilities — nearBeijing, Jinan, Tianjin, and the Shenzhen EconomicZone near Hong Kong — are reported under construc-tion as "multipurpose" plants that will mainly sterilizemedical supplies but process some foods and otherproducts as well.

Major objectives at facilities over the next four yearswill be to "smooth the path" toward commercial appli-cations of specific foods by testing irradiation's eco-nomic competitiveness under local market conditions,Mr Wu Jiaxiang of the State Science and TechnologyCommission's Department of High Technology reportedat the seminar.

How fast food irradiation develops commercially inChina, as elsewhere, is largely a question of economics.One analysis done at the University of Beijing found thatit is not yet economically competitive nationwide, andthat "considerable" transportation costs stemming froma lagging distribution system are a major reason why. Atthe local level, the picture is otherwise: In Shanghai, forinstance, the trial marketing run of irradiated applesshowed that "significant economic gains" can beexpected, reported Mr Cao.

To compensate for infrastructural shortcomings,China is following a pragmatic approach to commer-cialization, with the strategy to design and build irradia-tion plants flexible enough to adapt to local marketconditions and located near good transportation links,based on seminar reports. Most cities planning foodirradiation plants are either major transportation centresor situated near important Chinese agricultural areas.

Local realities: Specific needs

At the FAO/IAEA seminar, Mr Zhou of the StateCouncil reported that the country continues to sufferhigh food losses, up to 30% for some commodities,primarily due to preservation and storage problems.

Other food preservation methods are practiced, butnot all are well advanced. Refrigeration clearly remainstoo expensive for China, as for most developing nations,to institute on a wide scale. Chemical fumigation, whichright now is reported as less expensive to use in thecountry than food irradiation, is applied on rice, grains,and other foods. But there is growing concern over pol-lution and potential health effects, as well as over bar-riers that chemically treated products for exportincreasingly must overcome in international food trade,says Prof. Wu Jilan of the University of Beijing. Foodsfor export are potential candidates for food irradiation,and research has been done on vegetables, seafood, andspices, such as red peppers popularly used in Szechuancooking.

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At the local and regional level, food supply problemscrystallize: Serious regional shortages hurt local econo-mies and keep many fruits and vegetables out of Chinesehomes much of the year, restricting consumer diets,seminar participants reported. Mr Cao of the ShanghaiScience and Technology Commission offered a prover-bial description of his city's vegetable market, both fromthe standpoint of suppliers and consumers: "Spoil in theharvest seasons, short in the off seasons. Worry whenpiling up, hasty when running short." A recent marketsurvey found that 10 to 20% of vegetables spoil everyyear at an estimated cost of "tens of millions of yuan",or upwards of US $3 million. Fruits fare as badly, withthose lost in transport and storage annually amounting tomore than 28 000 tons valued at 12 million yuan, orroughly US $4 million.

Interest in food irradiation's benefits primarily is tiedto such conditions. By using gamma waves to reduce oreliminate pathogens and food-spoiling microorganisms,the country aims to prolong storage times so that locali-ties can better control distribution to help them overrideseasonal shortages and stabilize food supplies.

High technological investment

The Shanghai irradiation centre, which opened inJanuary 1986 and is run by the Shanghai NuclearResearch Institute, plans to process up to 35 000 tons ofvegetables a year, or about 45% of the city's annual sup-ply, as well as some spices, fruits, and non-foodproducts. Working with the Shanghai Vegetable Com-pany, a primary role will be to "stimulate commerciali-zation" in the area, reported Mr Cao of the city'sScience and Technology Commission.

Built in 18 months, the facility is a Chinese designstocked with domestically produced cobalt-60 rods;source capacity is 500 000 curies. With the exception ofCanadian and Swiss participation in two of the country'sfacilities, other irradiators also will bear the "Made inChina" label in both design and major components.Chief designer is the Institute of Nuclear Engineering inBeijing.

Chinese scientists and engineers have been studyingfood irradiation at small irradiators built throughout thecountry since 1958, but it wasn't until the end of theCultural Revolution in 1976 that activity intensified.Today about 100 small research irradiators are reportedto be operating to support research in various fields, andmore than US $10 million has been invested in foodirradiation's development over the past 10 years, esti-mates Prof. Wu of the University of Beijing.

Today, no less than six national bodies are directlyinvolved in various facets of food irradiation's develop-ment: the State Science and Technology Commission(policy, regulation), the State Economic Commission(marketing, licensing), the Chinese Academy ofSciences (research), the Ministry of Agriculture, Hus-bandry, and Fishery (research support), the Ministry of

Seminar participants toured the Shanghai Irradiation Centre. (Credit:Wedekind)

Public Health (food safety, clearances), and the Ministryof Nuclear Industry (operations).

So far, the Ministry of Public Health has approvedseven irradiated foods as safe for human diets: rice,potatoes, onions, garlic, peanuts, mushrooms, and porksausages; approval No. 8, for apples, is expectedshortly. Persuasive in the actions were assurances ofsafety from international food and health authorities,namely the Codex Alimentarius Commission of the F AOand World Health Organization (WHO), and the coun-try's own nutritional and safety studies. China's studiesincluded eight tests of volunteer medical students andcitizens who ate irradiated potatoes, rice, pork sausages,mushrooms, and other vegetables over periods of two tofour months. The tests concluded "there were no harm-ful effects at all after consumption of irradiated foods,"Mr Dai Yin of China's Institute of Food Safety, Control,and Inspection reported at the FAO/IAEA seminar.

All told, more than 25 separate foods now are seenas potential candidates for food irradiation processing,including fish, bamboo shoots, cauliflower, carrots,dried dates, strawberries, and oranges.

Growth paths and prospects

Despite their country's own long experience, Chineseofficials at the Shanghai meeting stressed their opennessto foreign participation and co-operation in food irradia-

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International co-operation

China is poised to become a more active participant in inter-national efforts for food irradiation's development. At theShanghai seminar, Mr Zhou Ping, vice-chairman of the ChineseState Council's Leading Group on Nuclear Power, announcedthat the country has decided to join the joint FAO/IAEA AsianRegional Co-operative Project on Food Irradiation (RPFI).

Under the project, countries in Asia and the Pacific havebanded together to address issues related to marketing and tradeof irradiated foods. They have agreed to assist and evaluate ship-ping trials of irradiated foods and to actively promote adoption ofregulations that would provide legislative harmony. RPFI membercountries now are Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, theRepublic of Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, andViet Nam, all of which sent experts to the Shanghai seminar. Theproject's overall objectives emphasize the transfer of technologyto local industries and the co-ordination of research and pilot-scale studies on selected products of particular interest to theregion.

Based on these developments and others, it is reasonable toexpect that more countries in the Asia and Pacific region will beusing food irradiation in years ahead to combat high rates of foodlosses and improve the quality of certain foods. Post-harvest foodlosses in the region remain high — estimated at 30% for grains,between 20 and 40% for fruits and vegetables, and up to 50% forfish — and there is growing recognition of potential health andeconomic benefits arising from their reduction.

Most countries in tropical regions are major producers offruits and vegetables, yet face serious problems of insect infesta-tion. Treatment with ionizing energy is seen as a way of meetingquarantine requirements of international trade so that exportmarkets can be expanded, especially in view of increasing limita-tions associated with the use of chemical fumigants.

Currently, Japan is the only country in the region with acommercial-scale food irradiator and it has been successfullymarketing irradiated potatoes since 1974. In addition to China,other countries moving to construct irradiators in the region areAustralia, Bangladesh, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia,Pakistan, Philippines, and Thailand. FAO/IAEA food irradiation seminar in Shanghai. (Credit: Wedekind)

— Information based in part on "Food Irradiation — an alternative techno-logy' ', a keynote address by Paisan Loaharanu, Head of the FAO/IAEA FoodPreservation Section, at the ASEAN Workshop on Food Irradiation, inThailand, November 1985.

tion's development. "China has a good will to co-operate with other Third World countries and developedcountries in the design and construction of irradiationfacilities, communication of science and technology,training, and technical service", Mr Gu Junren ofBeijing's Institute of Nuclear Engineering reported atthe FAO/IAEA seminar. On hand to hear the messagewere representatives from American, Canadian, Dutch,French, and West German irradiation firms who areinterested in the Chinese market.

Just how far China's plans are carried in years aheadwill be important to food irradiation's commercialfuture. If the fast-growing national economy can sustainthe current and projected pace for irradiation's local andregional commercialization, China clearly will be lead-ing the way in using gamma waves to preserve food. Inthe process, obstacles still hampering the technology'sworldwide development may be easier for other coun-tries to overcome.

At the Shanghai seminar, a panel of experts fromAustralia, New Zealand, Japan, Bangladesh, India,

Thailand, and China summarized five major barriers toprogress: a lack of commitment and investment from thefood industry; absence of approval for the use of ioniz-ing energy as a food process by most governments;uncertainty about consumer reaction; limited informa-tion on the economic feasibility of the process on a com-mercial scale; and insufficient experience on how theprocess may be controlled and regulated commercially,particularly for purposes of trade.

Countries were urged to take steps to implementlegislative recommendations of the Codex AlimentariusCommission as part of actions to harmonize regulations,to conduct market and economic studies to stimulatewider interest in food industries, and to establish anddocument good manufacturing practices, strict hygienicstandards, and satisfactory processing controls. TheCodex Commission has established a recommendedGeneral Standard for Irradiated Foods and an associatedCode of Practice for facility operations.

To address and help solve problems more specificallyrelated to trade, the FAO, WHO, and IAEA have

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formed an International Consultative Group on FoodIrradiation composed of experts nominated by23 governments. The group's major work is directed attrade promotion, training, economic feasibility studies,and public and consumer information.

In the future, national and international organiza-tions, food industries, trade associations, and consumerorganizations all will have an important role to play inintroducing the technology on a commercial scale inmany countries. In particular, actions in Canada,France, Italy, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, theUnited States, and other industrialized countries inwhich food irradiation is drawing more notice areimportant to progress, especially concerning legislativeacceptance and industrial interest. Recent positive signsfor the technology's wider acceptance and commerciali-zation will be instrumental to technology-transfer activi-

ties in the developing world directed at alleviating foodlosses and extending supplies to help combat hunger andstimulate economic development.

Worldwide, as of 1985, there are 24 commercialirradiation facilities in 11 countries that treat food as atleast part of their throughput, according to IAEA. By1990, the number of irradiation facilities for foodstuffsis expected to surpass 50, with operations spread among17 countries.

Research and demonstration over the past threedecades has long established the merits and safety offood irradiation as a technology holding importantbenefits for food producers and consumers alike. Withan increasing number of commercial and demonstrationplants becoming available to process a variety of foods,even more evidence is in the making.

United States:New food irradiation rule adopted

A long-awaited rule stipulating requirements for low-doseradiation processing of foods has taken effect in the UnitedStates. As published in the US Federal Register by the Food andDrug Administration on 18 April 1986, the new rule requires allretail irradiated food products to carry a label clearly stating treat-ment with radiation and accompanied by the international symbolfor the process.

At the wholesale level, irradiated food products also willrequire labels saying "treated with radiation — do not irradiateagain" or similar wording. "The labelling requirement appliesonly to a food that has been irradiated, not to a food that merelycontains an irradiated ingredient but that has not itself beenirradiated," the rule says in part.

After two years, or as of 18 April 1988, the rule stipulates thatall wording requirements for labelling irradiated food products willbe dropped, leaving only the international symbol to informconsumers.

The new FDA rule allows fresh fruits and vegetables to betreated with radiation at up to I kilogray, and herbs and spices at

up to 30 kilogray. Under previous rules, the FDA already allowsradiation treatment of potatoes, wheat and wheat flour, foodgrade enzymes, and pork products for trichinae control.Previously, herbs and spices also could be treated with radiationfor microbial and insect control at up to 1 kilogray. These levelsare far below those that have been recommended as safe for allfoods by the Codex Alimentarius Commission of the Food andAgriculture Organization and World Health Organization.

FDA Commissioner Frank E. Young called the new rule "alandmark development that will foster the use of this process,thereby providing better and safer products for the public andalso enhancing the market potential for the producers, not only inthis country but also for export".

Information drawn from CRA INFO, the newsletter of the US Atomic Indus-trial Forum's Committee on Radiation Applications.

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