HYDERABAD: Use of
ethylene to
ripen fruits is allowed as long as the concentration of the chemical is within the permissible limits, say experts. But the worrying fact is that the ethylene used to ripen
mangoes in the markets in the city are not pure and has calcium carbide, a banned substance, in it.
The gravity of the issue is such that the
Hyderabad High Court in 2015 had called fruit traders who use the carcinogenic calcium carbide ‘worse than terrorists’. Health experts too have flagged off numerous warnings about how consumption of such fruits result in gastrointestinal disturbances and dizzy spells. The arsenic and phosphorus in the fruits can lead to diarrhoea and vomiting.
“In extreme cases, excess consumption of fruits ripened with chemicals can also result in cancer,” said Dr
Hari Kishan, a physician at Apollo Hospitals, Hyderguda. He advised people to consume fruits that are naturally ripened. In case people find it difficult to tell apart the good fruits from the chemicallaced ones, they can opt to buy raw fruits and ripen then naturally at home in straw baskets..
Generally, people make a mistake by selecting mangoes that look ripe and polished from the outside and get disappointed when they eat it. Naturally ripened mangoes taste pleasant even as they lack the ‘look’, but artificially ripened ones are pleasant on the outside but are sour near the core.
Even as officials have been conducting raids and reams have been published about the harmful impact of chemically ripened fruits, traders and vendors continue with the unscrupulous practice due to the costeffectiveness of the enterprise.
For one, chemicals ripen the mangoes faster, or rather make it seem as if the fruit has ripened, thus making it able for the vendors to sell their stock fast. Secondly, if vendors opt for ripening chambers, they are under pressure to sell the entire ripened stock at one go and cannot stagger the sales according to profitability.
In some other cases, farmers fearful of natural calamities and heavy wind pluck the mangoes within 70-80 days even as it takes 100-120 days for the fruit to reach maturity. This once again sparks off the cycle of artificial ripening.
