World Trade and Sanitary/Phytosanitary (SPS) Regulation
The vapour heat treatment(VHT) is one of the phytosanitary measures taken to control fruit fly larvae in imported fresh fruits, especially mango and papaya. VHT is a requirement for fruit imports into Japan. In a visit to Thailand recently, a company exporting fresh fruits to Japan (mangos and mangosteens) also had mangosteens subjected to VHT. For those familiar with tropical fruits, the mangosteen, due to the thickness and constituency of its rind (skin) is not normally associated with fruit fly infestation. As VHT is expensive, it is not practical to have mangosteens go through the treatment. Comments anybody ?
2 comments July 23rd, 2008