induction of preventative phytoalexins again is a surface effect particularly at the sites of damage wounds or infections of the foodstuff the detoxification effect occurs throughout the foodstuff and thus needs to penetrate into the product up to 2 cms depending on individual foodstuff dimensions the preventative protective phytoalexin response effect appears to occur at an intermediate depth between the two to achieve these various effects in a practical configuration the foodstuff is introduced into the system in a manner which generates the necessary individual component separation this will vary by foodstuff type but for example potatoes tomatoes and peppers can be introduced in a single layer through the use of a roller or cup conveyor nut and grain type products such as sweetcorn though a vibrating conveyor or a conventional conveyor with a number of self levelling devices such as that detailed in u s pat no 5 597 597 or a combination of both while others of uneven and variable dimension may first be separated by a flotation technique before being introduced through a suitable conveyoring mechanism with or without an accompanying drying step such as forced air or infra red heating to increase the effectiveness of the decontamination or detoxification treatment method and apparatus for decontaminating product and inducing the preventative phytoalexin response in tomatoes potatoes peppers or similar bulk product the apparatus for achieving this is a combination of all 6 modules previously described and is shown in fig2 utilising one of the lamp configurations shown in fig1 typically as shown in 1 a or 1 b tomatoes freshly harvested or previously bulk stored are introduced into the entrance to the system via a rolling conveyor the distance between the individual rollers on a single.