Treating kava with methyl bromide might "close the kava market in New Caledonia"

[TheKavaSociety]

An interesting piece: http://dailypost.vu/news/kava-marke...cle_6da1420c-2601-54bd-82c5-2e09c2713f3e.html

"The Director of Biosecurity Vanuatu, Timothy Tumukon has signaled a potential that Vanuatu could lose its market for kava in New Caledonia if its consumers of the product become aware of or react to the dangers that methyl bromide, the chemical used to treat kava before export, posed to their health.

“The health complaints that they are receiving from consumers is a concern and the government of New Caledonia is very concerned also. That is why we started dialogue three or four years ago to see if we meet face to face and discuss these issues.

“It has come to this time for face-to-face meeting.”

This week these discussions are continuing with the visit of a biosecurity official from New Caledonia to find ways to improve the quality of kava exported by Vanuatu to the French territory.

Director Tumukon explained to The Vanuatu Nightly News’ Kizzy Kalsakau of 96 BuzzFM the use of methyl bromide to treat dried kava that is exported to New Caledonia.

“We have been exporting all these years our kava to New Caledonia after the kava is treated with a chemical, methyl bromide is its name, for three hours before the products is exported to New Caledonia.

“Methyl bromide as those who know about chemicals would know is a very dangerous chemical that is used to treat items to kill off any organisms before you export your product,” Director Tumukon said.

Concerns have been raised internationally that using methyl bromide causes damage to the environment especially to the ozone layer and governments are also concerned about its effects through residue from the chemical on products that are consumed by humans.

“In this case, New Caledonia is concerned about the use of methyl bromide on kava that is export for health reasons.

“There are complaints from consumers that there are ill effects of the kava from Vanuatu.

“And of course, for biosecurity reasons we are in discussions to ensure that if we are to review their import protocols, they need to come and have a look at our systems of preparing kava products for export to their country.”

Mr. Tumukon explained to Kizzy Kalsakau that it is this reason that one senior official from New Caledonia is here in Vanuatu this week and they are in discussion and she is visiting facilities and stakeholders to see how “we manage our products from farm to export, how we prepare it at the point of export and how we treat the product”.

The New Caledonia official accompanied by two officers of Biosecurity Vanuatu left Wednesday morning to Santo to also inspect the systems that have been established on Santo because Santo is Vanuatu’s biggest export port.

She wanted to visit the kava activities and export in Luganville also to ensure that discussions on Santo are focused on how Vanuatu manages its product before it is exported.



“The visit is especially to see if we are to do away with treatment of kava using methyl bromide, is it safe for them to import without any treatment?

“Is it safe in the sense that are there going to be no pest and disease attached to the product when it gets to their end without any treatment?”

“So, this is simply an inspection of our export procedures and to see if they are comfortable with it then we have further discussion to seal an agreement to do away with fumigation of kava to New Caledonia,” Tumukon continued.

He added that on the flip side they will also help our exporters in that the treatment/fumugation currently costs them money when they each export every consignment to New Caledonia.

“If after we decide to export without chemical treatment and consumers still complain then we can then look at the varieties of kava and ensure that only noble kava is exported to New Caledonia or any other market we export to.

But having said that, Tumukon countered that: “We have used methyl bromide widely, not only in Vanuatu, but elsewhere in the world where methyl bromide has been used for quarantine purposes to treat products and it is generally safe.

“It does not have any residue on products that are exported for consumption. But it can have some reaction with products that have got a lot of fats on them. That is it can attach/cling itself and does not dissipate or disappear when applied to products that have fatty properties on them,” he explained.

 

[Zac Imiola (Herbalist)]

The kavalactones assumably aren't exposed enough to bond are they ? Why specifically New Caledonia ? Or is this a common practice throughout Vanuatu in general

 

[verticity]

I looked into this methyl bromide thing a little bit.

Methyl bromide is a gaseous molecule that is just a methane molecule with a bromine substituted for one of the hydrogens. It is very toxic, but it is also a gas, so it almost all dissipates into the atmosphere. It used to be used very commonly for fumigation: it can kill insects, and also bacteria to a lesser extent. It is still used quite a bit in some places, such a Vanuatu, apparently, to sterilize shipping containers and foodstuffs for export. It is being phased out in the US and worldwide because another property of methyl bromide is that it can react with ozone to deplete the ozone layer, but it is still used here also. Another thing it is used for is to fumigate soil to kill insects, worms, etc that can damage crops.

The residue left in food when it is treated with methyl bromide has been studied, and there is some concern about it by some, but I don't think it is actually likely to be a problem. Like I said, the gaseous methyl bromide pretty much all dissipates into the air after the treatment is done, so the direct toxicity of methyl bromide itself is not a problem, but it is a pretty reactive molecule, so if a food contains protein or fat, then some of the methyl bromide can react with it, which results in the food having somewhat elevated levels of bromide ion. Kava does not contain fat, but it does contain a little bit of protein.

Bromine is actually an essential nutrient that is normally present in foods in small amounts (the fact that it is essential was discovered quite recently: Chemical element bromine is essential to life in humans and other animals, researchers discover )
However, in larger quantities, too much bromine in the form of bromide ions can be toxic to people. A hundred years ago or so, potassium bromide was commonly used as a sedative drug. (This is where the word "bromide" comes from, in the sense of a cliched saying intended to be pacifying) But if people took too much of it over a period of time, the bromide would build up and they would develop a disease with neurological symptoms called bromism. However, the amount of bromide salt you would need to consume is massive. According to Wikipedia "Doses of 0.5 to 1 gram per day of bromide can lead to bromism," which is a lot of elemental bromine.

Since methyl bromide has been so widely used to treat food, and soil that food is grown in, it's safety has been studied extensively. This FAO document on the topic of agricultural use of methyl bromide:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5042e/x5042E08.htm
Has this to say about the residue left in foods:

"Following fumigation of foodstuffs, the greater part of the methyl bromide is desorbed and diffuses away quickly. Under normal circumstances gaseous methyl bromide does not present a residue problem. However, there is usually a small, variable amount of permanent residue resulting from the chemical reaction between this fumigant and some constituents of the material. The reaction profioct, which is usually easily detectable, is inorganic bromide. In considering this subject it must be borne in mind that many foodstuffs contain natural ly occurring bromides ( Heywood , 1966) .

Bromide residues are not likely to be important from the point of view of human health if the foods containing them are consumed in normal amounts. For example, it would require about 135 kg (over 300 lb) of fumigated apples to furnish the average medicinal dose of bromide salt (Phi I I ips et al, l938). ..."​

It goes on to note that the methyl bromide can cause chemical reactions that can lead to an "off" flavor in some foods, especially high-fat foods like nuts. But in terms of health effects, it seems that the levels of bromide ion are so low that there would be really no danger of anyone getting bromism from treated foods.

So, really, if people in New Caledonia are getting sick from kava from Vanuatu, it is most like one of two things going on: 1) As we all know, sometimes kava can just make you nauseous, especially when you drink a lot of it; it's just a fairly common side effect of kava, and 2) Especially if the kava is tudei, or is mixed with tudei, it is even more likely to make one feel sick. Methyl bromide is bad for the environment, and is very toxic if people are directly exposed, but if it is used correctly as a fumigant, I don't really think there is any realistic health concern for people consuming goods that have been treated with it. It is something that has been widely used and extensively studied for many years.

 

[nabanga]

In Samoa around 2000 I used to buy a kava that was packaged in Apia for export after having been treated with methyl bromide. It has a bad taste and made me more nauseous than normal, but I wasn't sure if it was the bromide, or contamination of the kava from burning plastic when the plastic bags were heat sealed. From the above it sounds like it must have been the heat sealing..

 

[Kava Time]

Fiji also does fumigation with methyl bromide. All imported kava products needs to be fumigated regardless of whether its in powder form or whole. With export its a bit different in that they dont require the powder to be fumigated but i think when exporting whole kava it gets fumigated with methyl bromide..

 

[verticity]

In Samoa around 2000 I used to buy a kava that was packaged in Apia for export after having been treated with methyl bromide. It has a bad taste and made me more nauseous than normal, but I wasn't sure if it was the bromide, or contamination of the kava from burning plastic when the plastic bags were heat sealed. From the above it sounds like it must have been the heat sealing..

That's interesting. I would be curious to know when Vanuatu started the MeBr treatment, and whether the number of complaints increased when they started doing it, or if they have been doing it for a long time, and the complaints just started recently. The reactions with common food components like proteins are understood, but I don't know if the effect of MeBr on kavalactones has ever been tested. If not, then it is actually conceivable, but unlikely, that there could be unknown chemicals produced due to reactions with the unique components of kava. Another possibility could just be that if the taste seems off to people, they have an adverse reaction because of that. It can certainly happen that if something tastes or smells bad it can trigger nausea, regardless of whether there is some kind of actual physiological effect.

 

[verticity]

Fiji also does fumigation with methyl bromide. All imported kava products needs to be fumigated regardless of whether its in powder form or whole. With export its a bit different in that they dont require the powder to be fumigated but i think when exporting whole kava it gets fumigated with methyl bromide..

Hmm, so if the kava is imported from Vanuatu, it may be getting fumigated on both ends..

 

[Kava Time]

Hmm, so if the kava is imported from Vanuatu, it may be getting fumigated on both ends..

No its not fumigated on both ends. Its just a requirement that the kava be fumigated from the exporting country if its to be imported. So it gets fumigated just once unless if they find something in the packaging when conducting visual inspection. Im pretty sure this practice has been in place for years though not just for kava but for all sorts of plant produce.

 

[verticity]

No its not fumigated on both ends. Its just a requirement that the kava be fumigated from the exporting country if its to be imported. So it gets fumigated just once unless if they find something in the packaging when conducting visual inspection. Im pretty sure this practice has been in place for years though not just for kava but for all sorts of plant produce.

Oh, OK, I get it..

 

[verticity]

This fumigation is probably done for a good reason. In a tropical climate there are just lots of bugs all over the place, it seems. I just saw a post on the "Living in Vanuatu" Facebook group, which is mainly a group for expats living there, by a woman asking why there are always bugs in the rice she buys at the store, even inside sealed bags of rice. A bunch of people then chimed in to explain that, yup, bugs in the rice is just a normal part of living in Vanuatu... yet I've never found bugs in kava exported from Vanuatu... (in a retail package I mean; I wonder if vendors directly receiving the exports might have a different experience...) So thanks for fumigating, I guess..