{"id":34,"date":"2015-09-10T02:36:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-10T02:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodirradiationwatch.org\/?p=34"},"modified":"2025-12-21T11:33:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T11:33:17","slug":"mr-irradiated-tomatoes-and-capsicums-to-be-sold-without-labels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodirradiationwatch.org\/index.php\/mr-irradiated-tomatoes-and-capsicums-to-be-sold-without-labels\/","title":{"rendered":"MR: Irradiated Tomatoes and Capsicums to be Sold Without Labels"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"logo\"<\/a>Food Irradiation Watch<\/b><\/p>\n

Media Release<\/div>\n
May 23, 2013<\/div>\n
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Irradiated tomatoes and capsicums to be sold without labels<\/b><\/div>\n
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Though no formal announcement has been made, comlaw.gov.au<\/a>, the Australian Commonwealth law registry, indicates that permission to irradiate tomatoes and capsicums will be gazetted in to law today. http:\/\/www.comlaw.gov.au\/Details\/F2013L00809<\/a><\/i><\/div>\n
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\u201cWeak labelling laws mean that irradiated tomatoes and capsicums may start to appear in our shops without individual labelling,\u201d warns Food Irradiation Watch spokesperson Robin Taubenfeld.<\/div>\n
\u201cShoppers in southern states and New Zealand must keep a particular eye out for Queensland tomatoes,\u201d Ms. Taubenfeld adds.<\/div>\n
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Current laws allow shops to use a sign close by to irradiated produce, rather than actual stickers or labels.<\/div>\n
\u201cFood Irradiation Watch advises shoppers wishing to avoid irradiated produce to look down at the produce to see if there is a sticker and then look up to see if there is a sign.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt is greatly disappointing that the Ministerial Council did nothing to block this approval and will allow irradiated produce to be sold unlabelled.\u201d said spokesperson Robin Taubenfeld.<\/div>\n
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\u201cIrradiation is not only unnecessary, but it unnecessarily puts consumers and Australian horticulture at risk.\u201d<\/div>\n
Numerous scientific studies have highlighted the potential risks associated with consuming irradiated food. Irradiation reduces the vitamin and nutritional content of food and can produce new harmful chemicals in food, such as benzene, formaldehyde and cyclobutanones.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe government and industry have been using the phase out of some pesticides as an excuse to push for more irradiation approvals,\u201d Ms.Taubenfeld states, \u201cbut substituting one risky process with another is not acceptable.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAccording to our research, there are 16 further approvals in the pipeline, including zucchinis, honey dew melons, rockmelons , nectarines, strawberries, cherries, apricots , plums, peaches, table grapes, and apples.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cKnowing that people do want to consume irradiated food, the industry has long pushed for weak labelling laws, such as the ones we have today. Now alarmingly, Australia is poised to get rid of labelling all together; FSANZ will be undertaking a review of mandatory irradiation labelling next year.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\u201cGood food doesn\u2019t need irradiating. Irradiated food does require labelling. The fight is now on to make sure that labelling laws are not only kept in place, but improved to ensure that consumers have the right to choose.\u201d<\/div>\n
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For more information or comment contact:<\/div>\n
Food Irradiation Watch \u2013 Friends of the Earth Brisbane: Robin Taubenfeld 0411 118 737<\/b><\/div>\n
\"foe-australia-logo\"<\/a><\/b><\/div>\n
www.foodirradiationwatch.org<\/a><\/b><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Food Irradiation Watch Media Release May 23, 2013 Irradiated tomatoes and capsicums to be sold without labels Though no formal announcement has been made, comlaw.gov.au, the Australian Commonwealth law registry, indicates that permission to irradiate tomatoes and capsicums will be gazetted in to law today. http:\/\/www.comlaw.gov.au\/Details\/F2013L00809 \u201cWeak labelling laws mean<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodirradiationwatch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodirradiationwatch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodirradiationwatch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodirradiationwatch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodirradiationwatch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/foodirradiationwatch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":557,"href":"http:\/\/foodirradiationwatch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodirradiationwatch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodirradiationwatch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodirradiationwatch.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}