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Seafood irradiation unit in AP or Orissa

Our Bureau

KOCHI, Sept. 17

THE location for the country's first seafood irradiation centre has narrowed down to a choice between Bhubaneshwar in Orissa and Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

The facility is expected to process close to Rs 400 crore of seafood exports every year, the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) has reported. The venue will be finalised by the two Chief Secretaries of the respective States.

Food irradiation process is mainly used to extend the shelf life of cereals, pulses, tropical fruits, vegetables, seafood, meat and poultry, which reduces the post-harvest losses of these products considerably.

The proposed irradiation plant will have a capacity to process around 10,000 tonnes annually, which will result in irradiation of two tonnes of seafood per hour. This will also translate to 6,000 hours of operation per year in three shifts.

The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), which is to execute the project, said it had received two other mandates from the private sector to set up such centres, one at Vasai near Mumbai for spices and another at Kundli in Haryana for potatoes, garlic, basmati rice etc.

The Vasai project is expected to have an irradiation capacity of two tonnes per hour while the Kundli project will have a capacity of 25 tonnes per hour.

Irradiation process is fully in tune with the WTO norms on food trade. Meanwhile, most of the chemicals used in traditional fumigation process are to be phased out by 2005, MPEDA reported. Fumigation process costs work out cheaper at Rs 80 per tonne per annum when compared to irradiation process.

To match these cost, the irradiation project will need a capacity of 200 tonnes per hour capacity.