Penny for your thoughts?!

Basically, if it is used to sanitise food, or food preparation surfaces, it has to be registered. Mostly, for fresh fruit and vegetables, the focus seems to be on products to sanitise the water or bench surface.

You can check the list of registered agricultural chemicals at this link (select Category - Any Ag Product; and fill in "Active Constituent"):

http://services.apvma.gov.au/PubcrisWebC…

Looks like there are a few for specific circumstances - grape guards and a dairy cleanser.

I only found results for "sulfite" and "sulphite", and trying all the different combinations separately found only those results too. There is a much longer list if you just type in sulphur, but I think the chemicals need to be very specific.

I found a couple of other articles that gave the info about how it works and info about what they are most concerned with for fresh fruit and vegies.

This also said that they are used a lot for meat and dried fruit.

I'm glad you asked this question as I found the research on it interesting. Previously, I knew that chlorine dioxide (or acidified sodium chlorite) was frequently used. As far as I know this is okay as it dissipates quite quickly.

http://www.vgavic.org.au/pdf/r&d_VX99004…
http://www.apvma.gov.au/publications/gui…

It would seem it would depend on what type of ingredient you are including in your salad, and/or if you are buying those things at a salad bar.

Pages 6-9 might be of help to you, if you haven't seen it already.
http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/_srcfile…

Oh, and since they keep making reference to schedule 2,3, and 4, here they are
http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/_srcfile…

Have a good one.

Long time not see a question of yours Minx. Where are you hiding girl?

I have no answer to your Q, but judging by the dry apricots and raisins treated with sulphur and sold in our markets - I will be inclined to believe that it is with the blessing of the FDA.

It is better to wash the fresh fruits and vegetables thoroughly before consuming or cooking them.
What is true for one country may not be true for another. Like abortion is banned in some of the states in US of A but not in all the states or other countries. Same goes with capital punishments, etc. So also with drugs and preservaties.

australia is so slow banning things..we are so bad
should be ashamed really.
there was a cancer causing spray on red apples in the 80s that americs banned
we took a long time to ban it,was only public complaining why it was banned
our government dont have much say & would have no clue

You need to call the Food Authorities in Australia and ask them. You should be able to find them through one of your local national news networks