The use of ethylene as a ripening agent is at risk.

The deadline for submitting the necessary data to the European Commission to ensure the continued use of ethylene is June 30.

The Fresh Produce Consortium is urging the help and involvement of its members and the industry at large, both technically and financially. “It is vitally important and urgently required,” said the UK’s trade association. “We need your response by Friday April 15 2005.”

Ethylene is being treated as a pesticide under the EU’s review of pesticide approvals and Maximum Residue Levels (Directive 91/414/EC). The review covers the use of ethylene as a ripening gas.

The deadline for notification of the intention to support ethylene as an active substance on the EU market was October 31 2002. At that time three entities notified their intention to support ethylene - COLEACP (the EU-ACP liaison organisation), Air Liquide (a French distributor of ethylene) and BRM (a British supplier of ethylene generation equipment). A dossier covering product use, toxicology and safety must be submitted by 30 June 2005 to ensure the continued availability of ethylene as a ripening gas.

A taskforce has been established to provide the necessary information to support the continued use of ethylene. The task force includes three manufacturers and suppliers of ethylene (Restrain, Air Liquide and Air Products) and users, currently represented by COLEACP (the users’ subgroup).

However, there is no certainty that the parties involved will remain in the taskforce. There is doubt as to how the financial burden would be shouldered. The drafting of the dossier could cost £30,000 or more and evaluation of the dossier could cost a further £25,000.

The parties involved have been reluctant to share intellectual property until these issues are agreed and resolved. It is therefore not yet clear what information is available and what further information still needs to be compiled.

According to the European Directive 91/414, the task force will remain owner of the dossier for a five-year period. During that time, the information compiled by the task force might be needed to further secure the use of ethylene at Member State level. The use of such information might result in royalties to the benefit of the task force members.

If no dossier were submitted, registration for ethylene would remain in place for a short transitional period before withdrawal, probably by mid 2007.

It is therefore vital for those companies using ethylene to take action now.

The FPC said: “In order for us to help the taskforce, we need to find out the answers to the following questions:

1) For which products is ethylene used?

2) Who is your supplier of ethylene?

3) Is ethylene applied as a gas or as ethanol to subsequently generate a gas?

4) What length of time is the product exposed to ethylene?

5) How much ethylene is used for each product (minimum to maximum)?

6) What good practices are adhered to by users of ethylene?

7) What is the exposure of users to ethylene?

8) Is any toxicological information available?

“Members should stress again to their ethylene suppliers the importance of supporting (financially and technically) the work of the task force.

“Members should consider joining the users’ subgroup of the task force and signing an agreement to reimburse a proportion of the any costs incurred by the users’ sub-group during the registration process. At this stage, total costs are difficult to evaluate, but the share to be borne by users corresponds at the moment to 25 per cent of the total.

“If this financial support is not forthcoming, the process could be terminated and ethylene would no longer be available for ripening bananas or other products,” the FPC warned.

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