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Manufacturer says
X-rayed fruit safe, tastier

Works like microwave or
TV set, engineer says

By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

KEAAU, Hawaii -- The opening of the Hawaii Pride X-ray fruit treatment plant south of Hilo today is a "win" for Hawaii agriculture, a spokesman for the X-ray manufacturer says.

Hawaii Pride LLC was to hold dedication ceremonies this morning for its Keaau facility, which will use X-rays to sterilize flies in Big Island papayas and other fruits.

Worry-free, they can be shipped to mainland markets without quarantine restrictions.

Other treatments, such as hot vapor, can leave fruit tasteless, said Wil Williams, spokesman for Titan Corp., which makes Hawaii Pride's machine.

Benefits beyond taste

X-rays can be used to treat fruit when it is ripe, Williams said. "It's more nutritious. It isn't being steamed for four hours, killing all those vitamins," he said.

Another "win" is that X-rays double or triple the shelf life of fruit, he said.

A third "win" is the absence of environmental threats. X-rays replaced a controversial earlier proposal of radioactive cobalt-60 to treat fruit.

The fourth "win" benefits the Big Island economy. Papaya plantings can be expanded, and exotic fruits such as rambutans and lychees -- which never had a treatment -- may now be widely planted.

The facility that will do all this looks like a simple warehouse on a country road. The only hint of radiation -- when the X-ray machine is switched on -- is the concrete blockhouse in the back.

First U.S. X-ray fruit facility

The Keaau facility is the first in the nation using X-rays on fruit. It follows Titan's opening of an X-ray plant for meat in Sioux City, Iowa, last year and the first commercial treatment of hamburger meat there in May, Williams said.

Hawaii Pride's owners, Kurtistown nurseryman Eric Weinert and Hilo restaurant owner John Clark, hope to process up to 20 millions pounds of fruit per year, paying Titan a 19.9 percent royalty on profits.

A measure of the demand is the 870,000 pounds of fruit the state has helped growers ship to a cobalt irradiator near Chicago for treatment since 1995, says state agriculture official Lyle Wong.

Despite $1.50 per pound in shipping costs, shipments since 1995 have grown from six per year to one a week, Wong said.

Clark has said Hawaii Pride treatment would cost about 20 cents per pound. Direct shipment to market could follow.

Hawaii's share of the U.S. market has fallen from about 80 percent to 8 percent, Wong said.

Barry Taniguchi, president of the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board, says he'd like to see production increase from 25 million pounds a year to 100 million pounds.

Electron-zapper for fruit works like microwave or TV set, engineer says Star-Bulletin staff KEAAU, Hawaii -- The X-ray machine that will zap Big Island fruit is like a television, a microwave oven, or an airport X-ray device, officials say. Like a microwave oven, the Titan's "Sure Beam" X-ray uses ordinary electricity, not radioactive substances, a Titan release says. More like an airport X-ray, the machine does not heat fruit like a microwave oven does. The most detailed description was given by Titan engineer Tom Allen, who pointed out that a television tube shoots electrons from the back toward a screen in the front, and light comes out in the form of a picture. The Sure Beam shoots electrons from the back toward a piece of metal in the front and X-rays come out, he said.