Fed: ANZFA to vet Kiwi apple plans

AAP General News (Australia)
02-19-2001
Fed: ANZFA to vet Kiwi apple plans

CANBERRA, Feb 19 AAP - The food standards watchdog for Australia and New Zealand will
vet plans to import Kiwi apples.

Australia and New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA) officials confirmed today they would
review procedures planned to ensure New Zealand apples are free of the fire blight disease.

ANZFA chief executive Ian Lindenmayer told a Senate estimates hearing that procedures
such as irradiation or chlorine-dipping would have to be approved by the authority before
the food was allowed to be imported.

Mr Lindenmayer said the apples' processing would be subject to risk assessments before
being approved or to be carrying safe levels of chemical residues.

"In regard to processes such as irradiation, in each case, and by that I mean each
type of application, the nature of the irradiation process and the classes of food to
be irradiated, it is necessary to get prior approval," he said.

Chlorine-dipping, irradiation and several chemicals have been proposed to be used to
clean New Zealand apples of fire blight as a final safety measure before they are imported.

Fire blight, which can kill entire pear and apple orchards, is endemic in New Zealand
but does not exist in Australia.

Australian apple and pear growers are fighting New Zealand's application to import
fruit which is now before the quarantine authority Biosecurity Australia.

Labor Senator Michael Forshaw said there had been some serious concern raised by farmers
but there were also food safety issues surrounding fire blight and its control.

"Whilst the fire blight issue is one which is of major concern to the agriculture sector,
the growers, the fact is that fire blight can destroy the apple, but you might not even
notice its affected until you've cut it open," he said.

"Some of the process that have been identified as treating the apples before they come
into Australia like chlorine-dipping and the use of chemicals I would have thought might
have raised issues about fitness of human consumption."

Biosecurity is still considering responses to its draft import risk analysis report
on the New Zealand application.

AAP sw/daw/pc/de T

KEYWORD: APPLES

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