WESLACO, Texas, December 24, 1999 (ENS) - Attractive navel
oranges may remain standard fare in holiday gift packs after a new, chemical
(POISON) free insect quarantine treatment is accepted as 605qn]Ym/an alternative
to fumigating citrus with methyl bromide, a pesticide ("registered" POISON)
that depletes the ozone layer. Agricultural Research Service scientists
at Weslaco developed the alternative, in which citrus fruit is exposed
to forced hot air. The center of each fruit quickly reaches a temperature
of 111 degrees Fahrenheit and remains at that temperature long enough to
(safely) exterminate infesting fruit flies. Based upon this research, the
U.S. Department of Agricultures Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
(APHIS) last year approved use of forced hot air treatments for grapefruit,
tangerines and thin skinned Valencia oranges. This year navel oranges were
added to the list.
Now, an APHIS certified forced hot air chamber owned by a cooperative
of growers in Mexico is being used to treat up to eight tons of navel oranges
at a time. A U.S. produce grower and distributor, Rio Queen Citrus, located
in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, is importing heat treated oranges and
tangerines from Mexico. U.S. distributors exported about 1.18 million
tons of citrus in fiscal year 1998, with the majority of fruit grown in
areas where ('registered" POISON) treatments are required (by "law") to
insure the fruit is free of fruit flies. Unlike methyl bromide, which may
cause the fruit skin to develop a bronze color, the hot forced air treatment
does not impair fruit quality. It has also been shown to help protect the
citrus from green mold spoilage during transport and marketing.