Hyderabad: The Telangana high court on Thursday directed state food safety commissioner and food laboratory’s chief public analyst to inform it whether fruits ripen through ethylene gas are fit for human consumption and also to explain the difference between ethylene and ethephon.
A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy was hearing two pleas filed by ethylene sachet traders, who complained about police harassment hindering their business in Telangana. The bench reminded assistant solicitor general N Rajeswara Rao to obtain a counter from Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
The food safety authorities and labs had already declared that ethylene sachets were safe because it uses natural hormones within fruit to act as catalyst to ripen the fruits and hence the central authorities had issued guidelines approving the use of ethylene as a safe ripener, the bench said. “Hence, we cannot say that ethylene is a prohibited item. But the report of the amicus curiae was confusing, who brought in ethephon into the picture. This led to some confusion,” the bench said.
A little study into the matter revealed that edharine was the nickname of ethephon, it said. The amicus curiae’s report said that ethephon was an insecticide and hence cannot be used to ripen fruits. Petitioners’ counsel Dharmesh Jaiswal said that ethephon sachets produce ethylene gas, which would ripen the fruits, and was also approved by labs and authorities. The bench sought counters from the authorities and posted the case to July 30.
No comments:
Post a Comment