The 9,000-Mile Sea Journey of an Irradiated Indian Mango

The article says the smae about Indian mangoes destined for EU:

> The European Union lifted its own ban on Indian mangos this summer, but does not approve of irradiation treatment. Mangos destined for Europe are instead submerged in water at 48 degrees Celsius.

Well the article did not seem critical of the irradiation process at all. Maybe the title is a bit click baity ?

It is all about shipping mangoes by sea rather than by air. I'm a bit worried about that though. My local Pakistani mango dealer (no Indian around here, but IMO Honey Mango is a good alternative) was explaining me some rather unappealing process that they were experimenting to slow down the ripening process, like injecting stuff in the mango to make it stronger with a better shelf life.

Also maybe it is because the EU laws are different, but mangoes from Pakistan are not always irradiated, instead they are sprayed with boiling water, which make their skin ripple a bit but otherwise does not seem to affect the flavour too much. Well at least that's how they are in the beginning or end of the season.

edit: other commenters have more accurate info about EU, and Pakistani mangoes.

"At the facilities, exposure to radiant energy such as gamma rays renders any bugs unable to reproduce on the long journey to the U.S. Insects are in effect, sterilized, which does not actually kill the bug living inside the mango at the time. The energy waves directly attack the molecular structure that form the pest’s DNA. (The European Union lifted its own ban on Indian mangos this summer, but does not approve of irradiation treatment. Mangos destined for Europe are instead submerged in water at 48 degrees Celsius.)"

It doesn't sound like an intrinsically good thing for humans to be consuming food processed this way either...

…? I don't think the article says anything like that.