Oberon truffiere first in Australia certified free from banned chemical

Australia Broadcast Center

20 hours ago

As Australia's truffle industry continues to grow, a truffiere on the New South Wales Central Tablelands has become the first in the country to be certified free of a banned residual chemical.
Japan rejected several shipments of truffles from Australia in 2023 due to detections of organochlorine (OC) over the country's maximum residue limits.
OC is a chemical that has been banned in Australia since the 1990s and is typically found in various pesticides.
Japan, Australia's second-largest export market for truffles, has a three-strikes rule whereby if there are three detections of OC, the entire Australian industry would be banned from exporting truffles to their country.
In response to the first detection, the Australian Truffle Industry Association (ATIA) introduced the 2025 National Soils Testing Protocol, certifying truffieres were free from OC.
The testing is part of a recently introduced broader program of best practice called TruffleCare.
Redground Australia, an Oberon-based truffiere — otherwise simply known as a truffle grower — has been issued the first certificate of compliance under ATIA's National Soils Testing Protocol for Residues of Persistent Chemicals.
"It means our customers, our clientele, can be assured that the product that they are receiving, whether it's in Australia or overseas, is clean and free of residues," said the owner and managing director of Redground Australia, Jill O'Grady.
While Ms O'Grady said it was a lengthy process to secure the certificate — including getting accredited soil tests and looking at where their trees had come from — it was a vital step for industry.
ATIA vice-president Noel Fitzpatrick said the certification gave exporters confidence in their truffles.
"This is going to become more and more important over time as we build up export markets, but also the farms within Australia," he said.
Truffles are a subterranean fruit of fungi growing on the roots of host trees and are often used as a flavour enhancer on top of savoury dishes.
Despite only beginning to market truffles 25 years ago, Australia is the fourth-largest producer in the world, growing an estimated 20 tonnes of truffles per year.
This has grown significantly over the past few decades, with production projected to double or triple within the next 10 years.
Mr Fitzpatrick said creating the TruffleCare program was vital to ensuring each Australian truffle business produced a high-level product.
"We're always looking at quality assurance in the industry so we can maintain our standing on the global market and make sure that we are leaving no stone unturned to produce the best quality that we can to maintain those markets," he said.
The Australian truffle industry is estimated to have a gross value of $40 million per year and is made up of about 400 growers.
Seventy per cent of growers are in the southern forests region of south-west Western Australia, according to Agrifutures.
Truffles in general prefer warm summers and cold winters, with some incidence of frost and deep, well-draining and high pH soils.
Because of this, most Australian truffieres generally need to modify soils.
Decades ago, farmers would use insecticides such as Dieldrin and DDT to kill and deter pests in the soil from eating their crops.
These were all part of the OC (organochlorine) family, which Australia banned in the 1990s.
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said OCs generally resisted degradation by chemical, physical or biological means, meaning they were toxic to humans and other animals.
OCs are said to have serious short and long-term impacts at low concentrations, as well as non-lethal effects such as damage to the immune and reproductive systems.
Despite being banned for decades, the chemical has a residual effect, potentially taking hundreds of years to deplete from the soil.