Irradiation as an alternative treatment to methyl bromide for insect control

Methyl Bromide (MB) is widely used as a fumigant for the control of pests of stored grain, legumes, oil seeds, dry fruits and nuts, pest of timber, soil insects, soil nematodes, soil pathogens of plants, and as a quarantine treatment against pest of fresh horticultural products, and pests and diseases in propagation material. The global phase-out of MBB in advanced countries by 2005 and in developing countries by 2015 under the Montreal Protocol, because of its ozone depleting property, has prompted increasing interest in the use of irradiation as an alternative to MB for insect control in food and agricultural commodities in recent years. Irradiation at fairly low doses, of the order of 1 kGy or less is an effective alternative to chemical treatment of foods. The advantages of radiation processing include short treatment time in comparison to several days of exposure required in chemical fumigation, no undesirable chemical residues in the food, no resistance developed by the insects and no significant changes in the organoleptic, physicochemical and functional properties or the nutritive value of the treated products. Turkey is the leading country in the world, in production and exports of dried fig, apricot,raisin and hazelnut. One of the main problem in the export trade is infestation by stored product insects. In Turkey, the new legal regulations on food irradiation were published in Official Newspaper on November 6, 1999. (3 tables and 10 refs. included)