FOR THE PRESS: h55A.

PRESERVING FOOD BY ROTATION

Statement by The Minister for'National Development,  Senator the Hon, W.H, Spooner, MM.

.The use of radiation to preserve foodstuffs will be

investigated at the Research Establishment of the Atomic Energy

Commission which possesses radiation equipment unique in

AustraliaÂ·

This was announced today by the Minister for National

Development, Senator Spooner.

Australian scientists were already keeping in touch with

work being done overseas where considerable research had already

been carried out on preserving meat and other foodstuffs, Senator

Spooner said.

Information obtained from overseas would be supplemented

by local research. The primary problem was to determine whether

Australian meat would respond to irradiation the same way as

British and American meat and whether it would be acceptable to

the consumer.

The reactor HIFAR at Lucas Heights would be operating at

full power by the end of the year and high intensity gamma

radiation would be available for testing the effects of radiation

on various foods, meat in particular.

Scientists of the atomic Energy Commission and Army Food

Science Establishment, and the C.S.I.R.O. Division of Food

Preservation and Transport, had discussed the work to be done

and had agreed on a preliminary programme. The Atomic Energy

Commission would provide and operate the equipment and would

measure the dose rates involved, Senator Spooner said.

SYDNEY.

3rd Juris, 1959

