We treat our papayas for export with the Sure Beam electronic pasteurization technology for your environmental safety. Because of the possibility of introducing alien insect pests such as fruit flies, all exported fresh fruit must be inspected and/or treated. These are quarantine regulations put in place by most state governments and the Federal government. Alien species, be they dangerous animals, noxious weeds, aquatic life that destroys native species habitat, new plant of animal diseases, or insects, are some threat to every place on earth. In Hawaii, we live with our plant diseases and insects, but dread new arrivals for their impact on our farm. We are required by USDA to treat each box of papayas sent to the continental USA to render fruit flies harmless. Of the approved technologies for this treatment process, we have chosen to use the Sure Beam Electronic Pasteurization System. The electrically generated x-rays render fruit flies infertile at the approved minimum x-ray dose. Most other insects, should they have hitchhiked into a box, would also be infertile and thus no longer pose an environmental threat if they don't exist in your area. Very little heat (about 2 F degrees) is generated in the Sure Beam process, and tests have shown no significant change in nutrition. This process leaves the papayas very much like they were before treatment, but with no possibility of carrying unwanted insects with it.