Food Irradiation Watch: the Australian campaign to stop the nuclearisation of our food

Every year Friends of the Earth Brisbane hold a sustainable, organic, low food miles, irradiation free feast.

We need your help to make it happen! Fancy a beautiful night of music, great people and of course delicious food?! Friends of the Earth Brisbane is going to host a Feast for the Senses in November; a night of sustainable, locally sourced food, drinks and celebration. In order to do this we need your help! The first meeting to get the ball rolling will be on Thurs the 28th Aug. At 6pm at the Friends of the Earth office at 294 Montague Rd, West End. We'll also have a free yummy dinner to get those creative juices flowing.

Never volunteered before? No worries, this first meeting will be a great time for you to get a feel for the Feast and contribute as much or as little as you like!

FI Watch new animated film:

Revenge of the Irradiated Mangoes NOW PLAYING

Thanks to EngageMedia for hosting our film.

NEW! Cerebos have recently joined the green category of the Irradiation Free Food Guide. Cerebos brands include: Riva, Mocopan, Gravox, Fountain, Saxa, Foster Clark's desserts, Tandaco and also Cerebos Gregg's Ltd, which operates in New Zealand.

Masterfoods, Nerada Tea, Kookaburra Raw Peanuts & Camp Oven Mixes Cake Mixes, Grove Fruit Juice and Bakers Delight have all sent through irradiation-free policies and will now be listed in the green section of the Irradiation-free Food Guide. While Kookaburra and Grove are new to the Guide, Baker’s Delight is listed in this year’s version in the “Red - non-respondent category.” It is great to see them make the effort to get in to the Green. We hope all of these companies’ commitment will inspire others to go irradiation-free Irradiation-free honor roll.

Several companies stand out in the efforts to oppose food irradiation in Australia this year.

The Pancake Parlour restaurant chain in Victoria has distributed an average of 200 Irradiation-free Food Guides at each of its ten stores, making it a great disseminator of information as well as a dedicated pro-organic, irradiation-free business and a delicious place to eat.

Abundance Herbs based in Brisbane has been a great campaign supporter and one of the only businesses we have seen that labels their products “free from irradiation.” Sonia Fletcher from Abundance Herbs says all her products are labelled free from irradiation, pesticides, herbicides, GM ingredients and artificial fertilizers because people need to be aware of these potentially harmful processes. Sonia makes her on non-irradiated herbal infusions and has been a keen distributor of the Guide.

Food Connect, an organic (or near organic) food delivery service based on Community Supported Agriculture principles has also been active in distributing guides, supporting the cause and feeding the campaign.

Absolutely Organics in Western Australia and Happy High Herbs nationally have also been great irradiation-free food advocates this year.

Over 250 people attended our joint event with Food Connect & FoE Brisbane held at Ahimsa House. Farmer John Petersen and his film : "the Real Dirt on Farmer John" was a hit with the viewers and the many local and organic farmers who attended.

Everyone ate well off a feast of salads, pizzas, quiche and desserts made from organic and local producers by the volunteers at FI Watch and FoE Brisbane. Thanks to all who made the night a great success.

Food Irradiation Watch and Friends of the Earth New Zealand have been monitoring the access of Australian grown and irradiatied mangoes into the NZ marketplace.

Mangoes originating in the Northern Territory and possibly being irradiated in Queensland are already appearing in NZ stores. The mangoes in question are the Tou's brand.

A warning to NZ consumers: in our experience, irradiated mangoes are NOT always labelled. If you want to avoid irradiated foods, be sure to ask the shop managers.

f&wlogo U.S. advocacy group, Food & Water Watch have released a new report "Food Irradiation Around the World". Download your copy [here]

Some excerpts from the report:

- In February 2006, AEA Technology (AEAT), a company that was formerly part of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, was found guilty of a series of failings that led to a Cobalt- 60 transportation incident two years ago.

- In Ireland, 14 samples of noodles tested positive for irradiated ingredients. None of them were labeled.

- The EU has placed on ban on further irradiation approvals due to scientific research questioning the safety of some chemicals formed when food is exposed to radiation.

- A string of failures makes it clear there is little demand for irradiated food in the United States. As a result of low consumer demand, several irradiation companies have struggled.

- Despite a very strong push from the government, irradiation remains widely unpopular among consumers in Australia and New Zealand, so no new irradiation applications have been made. Labeling in Australia and New Zealand is still inadequate, as is monitoring by the government.

food irradiation watch

food irradiation - unsafe:unwanted:unnecessary

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FI Watch new animated film:

Revenge of the Irradiated Mangoes NOW PLAYING

New brand names join our Irradiation Free Food Guide

Film and organic, low-food miles feast a massive success!

Zapped Aussie mangoes back on New Zealand shelves in 2007/2008 season

New report on the status of Food Irradiation around the world