Don't buy Indian mangoes!

FIRST SHIPMENTS OF INDIAN MANGOES ARRIVE IN UNITED STATES

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2007-U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns on Tuesday welcomed the first shipments of irradiated Indian mangoes arriving through U.S. ports-of-entry, initiating mango trade with the United States.

Indian mangoes are the first fruit irradiated at an overseas site and approved for importation into the United States. Irradiation became an approved treatment on all pests for fruits and vegetables entering the United States in 2002. Last year, a generic dose was recognized for a wider range of commodities, including Indian mangoes. The use of irradiation provides an alternative to other pest control methods, such as fumigation, cold and heat treatments.

“This is a significant milestone that paves the way for the future use of irradiation technology to protect against the introduction of plant pests,” said Secretary Mike Johanns. “India and the United States began talking about shipping mangoes 17 years ago. Irradiating Indian mangoes safeguards American agriculture while providing additional choices for U.S. consumers in today’s global marketplace.”

APHIS, the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, approved the importation of precleared, commercial shipments of fresh mangoes from India, provided certain conditions are met. To ensure that plant pests of quarantine significance do not enter the United States though the importation of this fruit, the mangoes must be treated with specified doses of irradiation prior to export at an APHIS-certified facility. Each shipment must also be accompanied by a certificate issued by the national plant protection organization of India with additional declarations certifying that the treatment and inspection of the mangoes was made in accordance with APHIS regulations. In addition, inspectors with the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection may further inspect precleared commodities at the port of first arrival.

Comments

  • alpdesignsalpdesigns Raw Newbie

    Good post, but I hate to break it to you, most mangoes are already irradiated, This is just coming up because this is a new market. Imports are irradiated as a general rule and some produce and other products grown in the US are also irradiated. Some ingredients for nutritional supplements that are imported are irradiated. Garlic is often irradiated. We’re going to see more of this in the future. We should eat locally grown, organic produce, seasonally for the best health. We rely too much on the variety imported food offers. I’m guilty too.

  • Mangoes that come in from Mexico and other countries are generally heat treated and not irradiated. The only real untreated mangoes available in the US are grown in Florida and a few grown in California. You can get untreated mangoes from Robert is here: http://robertishere.com/mango_update.htm

  • alpdesignsalpdesigns Raw Newbie

    Heat treated, irradiated, microwaved. It’s just symantics. It’s all bad. Thanks for the link to an organic source. Ironically, an ad for Indian mangoes is posted on this page (GoneRaw) and I’m looking at it as I type!

    Here’s a good link about irradiated food:

    http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/irradiat…

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    I have been to Robert Is Here fruit stand in Florida. It is great! :) Robert himself gave us some free mangos while we were there – he was very knowledgable in explaining the difference in tastes of a truely ripe mango to an unripe one and the different sorts. :) He definately knows his stuff!

  • wait so what’s the difference between heat treated and irradiated? Is this all ostensibly for bacteria?

  • No, these treatments are for to kill off any type of larvae that might be in the skin of the fruit. Irradiation is just that, exposing the fruit to radiation strong enough to kill any living creature in it, heat treatment is either soaking in chlorinated hot water for a minimum of 90 minutes or treated with high heat vapor for probably the same amount of time. The pests that might hatch can wipe out the US crops because the US crops are so poor in quality. If the US fruit growers used appropriate soil and proper fertilizer then there is no need to be so cautious about pests as the pests do not attack healthy plants. Just as a lion will always pounce on the weakest animal in a herd of gazelle, pests that attack fruit will always attack the weakest and sickest ones. This way the fruit growers can keep on depleting the soil of nutrients and grow fruits with low or no nutritional value and be protected by the irradiated or heat treated fruit that is imported. It’s all a really sad situation for us the consumers.

  • SocaL,While your point about US fruit growers being more concerned with quantity rather than the (nutritional) quality of the product is probably true, the poor quality of the fruit is not why it is important to keep foreign pests out of the country. It is because the pests are foreign. Our crops are resistant to pests we have here, but not to pests elsewhere. The reverse is true, too. The US must treat many of it’s exports before other countries will accept them because other countries don’t want our pests. It is not a conspiracy, it is just the only way to grow something given our ever-shrinking world and the speed of pathogen evolution when compared to plants. I think 123 is right, if you want you food to be truely raw, eat locally.

  • Sure some of that is true but most of these mangoes are imported from Mexico. Sure there is a fence up between San Diego and Tijuana which is intended to stop the illegal immigrants (but is not) but it will not stop pests from crossing. They can simply fly across the fence. To say they do not exist here in California is ridiculous. They are already here and probably already in the fruits in California. It’s the same climate and the same bugs exist on both sides of the border. It’s just a stupid control to make the farmers feel like they are protected – but in reality it is doing nothing.

Sign In or Register to comment.