Kerala’s food safety authority has a toll-free number (1800-425-1125) in place. People can dial the number and lodge complaints about the use of calcium carbide to ripen mangoes and other fruit. Ernakulam is among the districts worst hit by artificial ripening, and food safety officers (FSO) in the district have swung into action to curb the malpractice, following a recent order issued by K Anil Kumar, the southern state’s food safety commissioner.
Food authorities from Maradu seized 620kg spurious fruit from the Agriculture Urban Wholesale Market (AUWM) in Ernakulam, which was, ironically, regarded as a major supplier of naturally-cultivated fruit and vegetables. Kumar said, “Nowadays, traders are using illicit methods to ripen the produced fruit in order to meet the growing demand for them in the market. There are a number of safer methods to ripen fruit artificially, but they prefer to use calcium carbide.”
“The use of calcium carbide to ripen the fruit has increased drastically, and the issue has also been discussed with Kerala’s neighbouring states, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, because the flow of the artificially-ripened fruit to Kerala is mainly from these states,” added Kumar, urging people who buy mangoes to be careful while doing so, lest they purchase fruit that has been ripened using the chemical.
He also urged the FSO to educate people to find the artificially-ripened fruit. “People should be able to identify fruit that has been ripened artificially. These would smell the same as calcium carbide, and the fruit would consistently be yellow, unlike naturally-ripened ones (which have different shades). Even the taste would be different, vis-a-vis naturally-ripened mangoes,” Kumar informed, reiterating that the toll-free number be dialled without any hesitation.
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