New options for spinach safety?
A new method for ridding harvested fruits and vegetables of insect pests and microorganisms, without the use of ozone-depleting chemicals like methyl bromide, has been developed by researchers at UC Davis.
The technique, called metabolic stress disinfection and disinfestation, effectively suffocates insects found in harvested produce. Forces produced by alternating vacuum and pressurized carbon dioxide applications cause irreversible changes in cell chemistry and damage to essential respiratory structures. Ethanol gas also is applied briefly to accelerate killing of fungi and bacteria and to damage insect eggs.
Researchers hope that the new technique will replace the use of post-harvest pesticides and allow for the complete phase-out of methyl bromide.
The process would be applied to pallets of fruits and vegetables to prevent damage during storage and shipping, and to avoid transporting dangerous contaminants. All major fruits, including table grapes, citrus, apples, pears, bananas and kiwifruits, as well as vegetables and ornamental flowers, retain their quality when treated with this technology…
I worked with Russel Hines, Emeritus Research Director at the USDA, to promote modified atmosphere food safety systems in the industrial sector using molecular sieve technology.The Monsanto sieves would remove oxygen and inject nitrogen into truck and ocean shipping containers starving pests and pathogens and somewhat slowing further growth and ripening.
My $250million proposal to install the system across Russia’s rail system — which may still be losing as much as 30% of its food production to pests and poor refrigeration — was stymied when the restructuring of the Commonwealth of Independent States in the 1990’s took the focus away from institutional government-backed investments.