New method to ripen mangoes

RIGHT WAY: A vendor checking the quality of mangoes in Tuticorin

A new and legitimate method of ripening mangoes has been introduced.

Food Safety Officers stepped in to guide vendors for ensuring the quality of mangoes.

The vendors were trained to use ethylene to ripen mangoes. Ethylene, secreted from mango trees, was used in liquid form to apply on mangoes, District Designated Officer, Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), M. Jagadis Chandrabose told The Hindu here on Friday.

The ethylene liquid should be sprayed on mangoes and it would make mangoes ripen in a day or two thus making them fit for consumption as per FSSA norms.

Ethylene produces natural gas initially but ripens mangoes, kept in a favourable atmosphere.

Ten ml of ethylene liquid needs to be dissolved in ten litres of water for spraying it on considerable number of mangoes. With this, sweetness, nutritional value and palatability of the fruit would remain intact, he said.

Explaining adverse effects of artificially ripened mangoes done with the help of calcium carbide, a harmful chemical compound, he said the latter would emit acetylene gas causing health disorder like ulcer, insomnia, loss of appetite.

Such practices were adopted by vendors to skip warehousing expenditure and make a fast buck. Consumption of such mangoes might lead to cancer, he said.

With such a substance, mangoes could ripe within eight hours.

These mangoes would be colourful and attractive but its pulp would not be sweet, Dr. Chandrabose said. He added that surprise raids would be conducted in stalls to check any illegal method of ripening mangoes.