Ripening the Mango!

Part 1 of 4: Ripening the Mango

Ripen the mango in a paper bag or newspaper. Leave the bag of mangos on the kitchen counter overnight and check for ripeness in the morning. Mangos wrapped in a paper bag will release ethylene, which is an odorless gas that speeds up the ripening process.[1] Remove and use the mango when it gives off a fruity scent and yields to soft pressure, usually about a day (or less).

When wrapping mangos in a paper bag or newspaper, be sure not to close the bag completely. Some air and gas needs to escape or mold and mildew might start to form.[2]

Add an apple or banana to the bag to speed up the ripening even more. Adding more ethylene-emitting fruits will increase the ethylene in the bag, giving you an even juicier mango all the quicker.

Submerge the mango in a bowl of uncooked rice or popcorn kernels. This old wives trick hails from India, where industrious moms hid unripe mangos in bags of uncooked rice to speed up the ripening. In Mexico, the trick is much the same, except with uncooked popcorn kernels instead of rice. The ingredients are different, but the process and the results are the same: Instead of waiting three days for your mangos to ripen au naturel, they should be ripe within a day or two, maybe even less.

The reason behind the ripening here is the same as the paper bag method: Rice or popcorn helps trap ethylene gas around the mango, resulting in a much faster ripening process.

In fact, this method is so effective that you sometimes risk overripening the mango. Check every 6 or 12 hours for doneness. As long as you don't forget the mango inside the bowl of rice, you should have a wonderfully ripe mango at your disposal.

Set the unripe mango on the kitchen counter at room temperature. You only need time and patience for this method. Mangos, like other fruits, may take several days to ripen, but this is the most natural way of getting your mango plump, juicy, and ready to eat. Use the mango when it is soft to the touch and has a strong fruity smell.

Part 2 of 4: Determining Ripeness

Smell the mango for the most reliable results. Sniff the stem end of the mango. If it has a heavy, fruity, almost musky odor, it is ripe. It you're struggling to find an aroma, chances are your mango isn't quite there yet.

Squeeze the mango gently after you've sniffed. Press the mango gently. If it is soft and gives slightly, it is ripe. A ripe mango feels similar to a ripe peach or ripe avocado. If the mango feels firm and unyielding, it is still unripe.

Don't rely on color to judge the ripeness of a mango. Although most ripe mangos will also feature rich reds and burnt yellows more than soft greens, ripe mangos are not always red and yellow.[3] So forget the look of mangos when determining ripeness. Instead, use smell and softness as your guide.

Don't be scared away by a few black spots on the surface of the mango skin.Some people are scared away by mangos that have a few splotchy, black blemishes on them. These blemishes usually indicate the beginning of the end for mangos. While mangos are notoriously susceptible to spoilage, black blotches don't necessarily mean the mango is bad. In fact, it may mean the mango has more sugar content.[4]

If the black spots are especially soft, cut the mango open and look for translucent fruit. This is a sign of spoilage, and these mangos should be thrown away.

Use your senses if the mango in question has a few black spots: If it doesn't give too much, has a pleasant smell, and the skin is otherwise taut and richly-colored, give the mango a go.

Part 3 of 4: Storing the Mango

Place the whole mango in the refrigerator when it has ripened. No wrap or container is necessary to store the mango in the refrigerator. Keeping the mango in the refrigerator will slow down the speed at which the mango continues to ripen. Keep a whole ripe mango in the refrigerator for as long as five days.

Never store a mango in the refrigerator before it has ripened. Like all tropical fruits, mangos should not be stored in the fridge before they are ripe, as their fruit might be damaged by the cold temperature and the refrigeration will halt the ripening process.

Peel and chop the ripe mango if desired. Place the chopped, ripe mango into an airtight container. Keep the container in the refrigerator for a few days. Keep chopped mango in an airtight container in the freezer for as long as 6 months.

Part 4 of 4: Mango Varieties

Variety	Appearance	Flavor
Haden	One of the more popular types of mango, the Haden has smooth skin and the shape of kidney bean	Full, sweet flavor[5]
Van Dyke	Popular throughout Europe, the Van Dyke is smaller and has a small nipple on the tip of the fruit	Slightly spicy, not as rich as the prototypical mango
Kent	Large and heavy, this mango cultivar can weigh as much as 1 and 1/4 pounds (.5 kg)	Very tropical flavor
Ataulfo	Slightly oblong, almost resembling a cashew	Sweet, buttery, slightly acidic; the "champagne" of mangos
Tommy Atkins	Bright, deep skin; shaped like a Haden	Not as sweet as Haden, with medium fiber

Not Just Food, Even Yellow Paint Can Kill

Health experts warn of high lead content in yellow paint which is used in school buses, schools and homes; mull sending a proposal to State to ban it

COIMBATORE:Soon after Maggi was banned due to its high lead content, several health experts came up expressing that its not only Maggi that has lead content in it but most food items and the environment, a common man comes in touch with, are also have lead content in it and also poses a threat to the health of public.

Health experts derided even the Tamil Nadu government’s decision that made it mandatory to have yellow paints in all school buses, as they cited that yellow paint is a rich source of lead. Experts also demanded a close watch on the food items an average Tamilian eats everyday, and said that steps should be taken to have a lead-free diet for all.

Dr MK Appunni, retired Communicable Disease Control Officer said, the more a paint shines, the higher will be the lead content in it. “I will soon send a proposal to the State to ban the use of yellow paints in schools bus, schools and houses. I have study reports to prove high lead content in yellow paint. Constant touch with shining painted material in houses, schools and vehicles will also lead to be more lead contamination in blood,” said Appunni.

He said, at a time when all the developed countries promote the use lead-free petrol, in India, there is no restriction for petrol with high lead content. “The impure petrol airs lead, and it automatically reaches the human body. This is a big source of lead and the government has been turning a blind eye to this issue,” added Appunni.

The public is also of the view that by just banning Maggi, the government cannot make people safe. The food we consume everyday is toxic with the presence of lead in it. “The use of pesticides, insecticides, weedicides etc., are rich sources of lead. Consuming them regularly will result in excess amount of lead in blood,” said Dr Hazeena M, a Coimbatore-based dietitian.

The carbon and other lead contained mixtures that the farmers use for artificial ripening of fruits is also dangerous. “Consuming such fruits will increase lead content level in blood. The fast food culture and ingredients food traders add for better taste is also a rich source of lead,” added Hazeena.

Ensure Fool-proof System to Monitor Food Safety: Say Experts

Allegations are on the rise that the present monitoring system to safeguard people from food hazards is very poor. Health experts and the public demand a fool-proof system to ensure food safety across Tamil Nadu.

The situation had put the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in a hot spot. The FSSAI was formed as per the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006, to promote public health through regulation and supervision of food safety.

However, with the Maggi issue, consumer activists allege that the FSSAI has failed to ensure food safety, and thus safeguard public health.

“Maggi had a booming sale for years, and it is just a few days since the Food Safety officials realised that Maggi was hazardous. The entire population in the country was consuming this hazardous food. It has taken years for them to realise this. But more puzzling is the kind of food safety that these officials have been talking about,” said Mohan Kumar, a consumer.

However, consumer activists and consumer organisations consider the ban on Maggi a positive development, and expects similar action from the government in the case of other hazardous food items also.

“Usually, people think that big corporates cannot be touched by the government, but the government by banning Maggi has proved it wrong. The government has shown guts to act in line with their assessment without any fear or favour,” said R Desikan, Chairman (emeritus) Consumer Association of India.

Desikan also urged people to forget the past and consider the Maggi ban as the beginning of a new era. “The Maggi ban has shaken the country, and the common man expects similar kind of action from the government. By banning Maggi, the consumer has become the real king and their rights have been protected,” added Desikan.

When asked about the development, designated officer of the Food Safety Wing (Coimbatore)
R Kathiravan, said that the measures taken by the food safety department would ensure a fool-proof monitoring system. “These are policy decisions, and the Food Safety Commissioner would be the right person to answer it,” he added. The Food Safety Commissioner was unavailable for comments when contacted.

Policy Watch: Bans, caprice and corruption

Bans without well­-documented processes and protocols lead to caprice even corruption

Timeline: early 1980s. India sees the emergence of a new form of blackmail. A trade organisation, Retail Druggists’ and Chemists’ Association (RDCA), decides to selectively target manufacturers and ‘ban’ the sale of their products from all chemist- and druggist counters in Mumbai. This strategy is soon adopted by RDCA’s counterpart in Kolkata.

RDCA hones in on Glaxo. Its pharmaceutical and milk products go off the shelves for several months. That hurts Glaxo grievously, because Mumbai was (and is) a big consuming centre and also a major hub for onward distribution to other chemists across western India. Glaxo finally settles with RDCA. The settlement price is said to be huge. It agrees to higher margins for chemists and druggists as well.

Next target: Richardson Hindustan (the then manufacturer of the Vicks range of products, now owned by P&G). This time, many RDCA members cause more pain by allowing sale of a local product with similar packaging under similar name (one alphabet changed in brand name). The terms of settlement are stiffer.

No government authority passes any restraint order even though the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act — MRTP — was still in force then. Nobody is arrested for trademark infringement. The stench of collusion is nauseating.

Timeline: now. Somehow, somewhere down the line, over the years, such practices appear to have been picked up by the government watchdog Food and Drug Administration (FDA). While it is difficult for this publication to prove corruption, there is enough evidence to indicate incompetence, even caprice.

Fact: FDA decides to move against select players (see chart alongside), but ignores larger numbers of malpractices that are in evidence elsewhere. Points to incompetence; even caprice. Collusion cannot be ruled out.

Fact: Three months ago, the consumer court slaps damages on Britannia for supply of sub- standard food items. The case was filed in 2002. The FDA does nothing both before and after the judgement. This is even after other instances of malpractices are pointed out.

Now view the actions against Nestle’s Maggi Noodles. It is nobody’s case to suggest thatNestle is innocent. But the selective targeting of one company is always worrisome. It smacks of caprice — which is just a short step away from full­blown corruption.

Secondly, the sheer absence of proper procedures and protocols in the Food Safety Act (under which the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India — FSSAI — was formed), makes the entire exercise odious. Thus, while one laboratory tests the noodles and the masala sachet separately, others (correctly) mix the masala into the noodles and then check for its compliance with the FSSAI norms. The matter is now before the courts, and its decision is awaited.

Third, most FDA and FSSAI laboratories are themselves woefully inadequate and ill­equipped, lacking proper testing equipment and staff. Not surprisingly, when the government of Maharashtra confiscated some meat (thought to be beef from a bull, thus violating its beef ban laws — see http://dnai.in/cEnm), it found no FDA lab, or veterinary college, capable of testing the meat. Finally, it was sent outside the state for testing. This is absurd.

Surely, India’s legislators ought to create laws only when they know that proper testing facilities, for implementing such laws, are also in place.

Fourth, there is huge inconsistency in the application of laws. The biggest risk to health is contaminated water. No FDA report has sought to penalise the officers responsible for the supply of ‘unsafe’ water. Nor has the FSSAI or the FDA ever sought to ban the supply of such ‘unsafe’ water.

If discretion can be exercised in the case of water, why should a ban become necessary for any other product? Can’t violations be prevented in other ways?

Fifth, look at the track record. The FSSAI’s own “Statement regarding number of samples found adulterated, and prosecutions launched” (www.fssai.gov.in/Portals/0/Pdf/Enf_Year_wise_data.pdf) shows how in the first six months of 2014­15, as many as 49,290 samples were tested, of which 8,469 (17%) were found to be sub­standard. Prosecution was launched against 7,098 (84%), while convictions/penalties were made applicable to just 2,701 (38%).

Why weren’t penalties/convictions launched against all the sub­standard samples? Was it because 15% ( a large number) of its tests were flawed? Were any officers penalised for flawed testing? Why is the conviction rate under 40%?

Unless there are clear procedures and protocols — on how testing is to be done; how show­cause notices are issued; how laboratory technicians (guilty of flawed testing) are pulled up and penalised; how penalties can be waived and under what circumstances —the discretionary power given to officials can easily be misused. They point, once again, to incompetence, caprice and collusion.

That could explain why Amul had to publicly challenge an FDA allegation that its milk from one centre was sub­standard. The FDA officials had picked up samples from the collection centre, not from finished products which are released after the removal of any impurities. Two things, therefore, must be done.

First, review the entire list of “contaminants” that make a food or liquid item “sub­standard”. That could prevent a situation like the one where Tata Starbucks has to withdraw 12 ingredients that are commonly used by similar centres in 65 countries.

Second, the government must issue clear rules on processes to be followed for testing, for sampling, and for levy of penalties. 

The need for a clean­up is immense. Because the line that divides investigation and extortion can be very thin indeed.

A long way to go to make our food safe

Food safety department sources said they had conducted checks in several shops, malls and outlets to take samples of different kinds of food items.

Multiple cases of high levels of lead and MSG in Maggi noodles has rattled us so much that our nation appears to have woken up to the need for better labelling of foodstuff. It took a major scare that led to the recall of 27,400 tonnes of noodles worth Rs 320 crore to bring us to a point where we will evaluate from scratch the entire process of testing, packaging and labelling of food products that 1.2 billion people consume regularly. There is reason to believe that not only have we in India come to accept some of the world’s worst food safety standards, but has also allowed states to have very weak infrastructure. The only positive is that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is finally looking beyond just more rigorous testing of food.

The FSSAI has ambitious plans to regulate salt, sugar and fat elements in food, force restaurants to list the calorie count of whatever they serve and make the labelling a far more scientific process than now. The FSSAI will also issue guidelines soon on food for schoolchildren. It may take years of back breaking work for panels of doctors, dieticians, nutritionists and representatives of premier food testing institutions to lay out the roadmap for a whole new era of food safety regulations, as well as dietary recommendations, for a population barely aware of what is good for health.

A very significant fact to emerge from the Maggi episode in India as well as the testing by US food authorities of food imports from India, including noodles, is the distinct possibility of excessive levels of lead and pesticides in our food products. The former is probably there in our water while the matter of pesticides can only be tackled by educating millions of farmers, grocers and food processors of the dangers of these deadly chemicals getting into the food chain. A sea change must come about in the very process of crop production if we are to guard the nation from eating its way to ill-health and suffering the resulting damage to the population and the GDP.

Let us not pretend even for a moment that we have a watertight food supply chain, food safety procedures and water treatment processes. Our entire infrastructure must be examined from first principles, on which governments have a moral responsibility as people would like to know where all their taxes are going and whether enough is being pumped into reviewing the most basic resource of life. What is food security really worth if food safety is not guaranteed? Do we need more such branding crises before we act to save ourselves from slow poisoning?

Now, ITC's Yippee under food safety scanner

DEHRADUN: After the unexpected debacle of Maggi in the country and a 90-day ban in Uttarakhand, misfortune has knocked on the doors of ITC's Yippee noodles. The food safety and security authority of Uttarakhand has issued a notice seeking clarifications about the nutritional and other claims on the product's label.

Spelling trouble for the Kolkata-based company, the food safety officer has asked ITC to respond to the notice within 15 days from its date of receipt. The notice was issued on Friday.

The step was initiated after samples of Yippee (its Magic Masala and Classic Masala versions) sold under the Sunfeast brand were lifted from a store in Kaliyar in Haridwar to send to the state food testing lab based in Rudrapur.

"The notice directs ITC to provide nutrients profile and lab reports to back their claims of energy, protein, carbohydrate, sugar and calcium," said Dilip Jain, the food safety officer who carried out the operation. The label of Sunfeast Yippee noodles (Classic Masala) says 'Nutritional information per 100 g is 465 Kcal., protein 8.8, carbohydrate 63 and others.'

"The company has been asked about the vegetarian certificates of these flavour enhancers," Jain said.

The notice asks the company to provide accredited lab reports, which was approved by FSSAI, of the shelf life analysis of both the noodle varieties. The printing on the pack claims the product to be best before nine months from the date of manufacture.

Recently, according to reports, ITC had removed the 'no added MSG' claim from Yippee noodles packs. "ITC is voluntarily taking steps to remove the phrase from labels in its new batches. Consumers should ignore this on the current packaging. ITC would like to once again assure consumers that MSG is not added to Sunfeast Yippee Noodles," ITC said in a statement as per reports.

In case the company fails to provide a reply to the department's queries within the given time, the information printed on the packs of both the noodles will be considered false and misleading, punishable offences under the FSSAI Act 2006. ITC has a manufacturing unit at State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Ltd, Haridwar.

On June 3, the state government banned the sale of Maggi for three months after a sample of the popular instant noodles, taken earlier this year from Pauri district, failed laboratory tests.

PepsiCo to cut down salt, sugar content in packaged foods

The US-headquartered food and beverage giant is likely to roll out the refined products ahead of schedule, executives aware of the development said.

NEW DELHI: PepsiCo has stepped up work on reducing salt and sugar in the beverages and snacks it sells in India amid growing public concern over high levels of some ingredients in packaged foods available in stores.

The US-headquartered food and beverage giant is likely to roll out the refined products ahead of schedule, executives aware of the development said. Last week, the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) had said that it is setting up an expert committee to regulate salt, sugar and fat in foods.

Among the products the company is working on is '7 Up Revive', a soft drink touted to contain less sugar than the regular '7 Up'. The beverage is currently being sold in select markets of south India. The date for its nationwide rollout is being brought forward, the executives, who did not wish to be named, said.

"PepsiCo is also stepping up distribution of its low-sugar, low-salt oats brand 'Quaker Oats', while other low-salt, low-calorie variants of its snacks brands, including 'Kurkure' and 'Lay's', are also in the process of being researched, and the company wants to launch these ahead of schedule," one of the executives said.

A spokesperson for PepsiCo said, "As part of our global commitment to performance with purpose, we continue to refine our food and beverage choices to meet changing consumer needs by reducing sodium, added sugars and saturated fat, and developing a broader portfolio of product choices."

The expert committee being set up by FSSAI will recommend the limits for such ingredients.

"The adverse effects caused by food, which is high in salt, sugar and fat, also commonly referred to as 'junk food', on the health of consumers has been a serious concern," the regulator had posted on its website last week. It will also additionally give recommendations on labelling of these ingredients and prescribe regulations for displaying salt, sugar and fat content in foods being sold in restaurants and by caterers.

The move, however, comes amid low offtake of such products in the Indian market.

"In general, moves like these are in the right direction. But historically, many similar attempts across industry haven't worked," said Amit Khurana, programme head, food safety, for research and advocacy firm Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

Sugar-free products, which contain artificial sweeteners like aspartame, haven't worked amid concerns that the sweeteners are harmful for health and in some cases are carcinogenic. PepsiCo chairman Indra Nooyi had said at the company's first-quarter earnings call in April that globally millennials were going back to "real sugar" drinks and foods, shunning diet products with "artificial" sweeteners. "We've never seen consumers as confused as they are today," she had said.

In India, the contribution of diet drinks such as Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi and Coke Zero to overall sale of carbonated beverage remains under 2%.

Two years ago, PepsiCo's baked snacks range under its 'Aliva' brand was pulled off shelves because of lack of consumer interest. Parle Products too had withdrawn its baked chips before that for the same reason.

‘Subject imported arecanut to stringent quality tests’

‘It is suspected that their consumption is injurious to health’

B.A. Ramesh Hegde, president of the Shivamogga District Arecanut Growers' Association, has urged the Union government to direct the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to subject imported arecanut to stringent quality tests.

The total import of arecanut, which was 18,228 quintals in 2013-14, had risen to 1,00,846 quintals in 2014-15. In the wake of complaints that imported arecanut was of poor quality, the FSSAI should conduct quality checks on its arrival at the ports, he said at a press conference here on Saturday.

At present, the import duty charged on arecanut was low due to trade agreement under the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA). Imports from the members of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) were exempted from all duties. For protecting the interests of native growers, the Union government should keep arecanut out of the purview of SAFTA and SAARC trade agreements and impose a total ban on its import, he said.

Mr. Hegde urged the Union government to implement the recommendations of Gorakh Singh panel on extending loans for arecanut growers, who were in financial distress due to pest and fungal attacks on the crop and the resultant loss of yield.

DINAMALAR NEWS

Global brands like McDonald’s stretched by India’s food safety record

Tainted water, patchy cold storage network and a retail sector made up of tiny local grocers present a major risk for international food brands

Nestlé is currently battling India’s biggest food scare in a decade, after regulators reported some packets of its Maggi noodles contained excess lead, a finding the company disputes. Photo: Reuters

At a McDonald’s plant outside Mumbai, 200 workers walk through air dryers and disinfectant pools, then get to work making the day’s 25,000 patties from chicken painstakingly sourced in a country with one of the world’s worst food safety records.

To safeguard its multi-billion-dollar brand, McDonald’s says that more than 100 checks it applies across its international operations are then carried out after that.

The country’s tainted water, patchy cold storage network and a retail sector made up of tiny local grocers present a major risk for international food brands, whose reputation can suffer globally from one local slip.

This can mean educating hundreds of small, often illiterate, farmers—critical in a fragmented farming sector that in some cases still uses “night soil”, or human faeces, for composting.

“There are thousands of farmers you need to reach out to, each with maybe an acre, two acres of land,” said Vikram Ogale, who looks after the supply chain and quality assurance for McDonald’s India.

“Think of a situation where you have 1,000 farmers and...you have to educate them, convince them.”

But even that is sometimes not enough.

Swiss food group Nestlé is currently battling India’s biggest food scare in a decade and an unprecedented branding crisis in the country, after regulators reported some packets of its noodles contained excess lead, a finding the company disputes.

Its woes have laid bare the risks of operating in a country where it is difficult to build a watertight supply chain, and where state food safety infrastructure is minimal, at best.

Nestlé, like other major brands conscious of the damage a food scare can create, says it carries out extensive testing and manages parts of its procurement processes electronically so ingredients, milk for example, are tagged and traceable. It steam sterilizes spices and transports edible oil in stainless steel tankers to avoid metal contamination.

It uses external audit firms to check suppliers.

Wal-Mart, which operates as a wholesaler in India, says its checks mean rejecting 10-11% of produce daily.

While all major international firms producing packaged food or fast food say they use trusted suppliers, most acknowledge their suppliers often rely on other providers, who then sub-contract to others and so on, making it a daily struggle to control the source of every last ingredient.

Nestlé, for example, buys much of its spices from a supplier that itself sources spices from over 10,000 farmers. Spices such as turmeric and chilli powder have in the past been connected to lead poisoning, though there is no evidence that is the source of Nestle’s woes this time.

McDonald’s imported its french fries from the US until about seven years ago, while it sought out farmers and educated them on hygiene and best practice.

But not all ingredients can be easily imported, and the need to keep costs low inevitably pushes firms to source locally, forcing them to constantly educate and check standards of suppliers, and suppliers’ suppliers.

McDonald’s says it can trace all its ingredients, but for many, that is a challenge in a country where one in five food samples tested by the government is found to be contaminated, adulterated or mislabelled.

“International brands have standards, but what they can really control is from when they have access to the raw materials,” said Umesh Kamble, a supplier in Mumbai, who sells his products to restaurants in the country.

Nestlé is now pushing ahead with India’s first-ever national recall, pulling some 27,400 tonnes of its popular Maggi noodles off India’s shelves, a process that will take at least 40 days.

But India’s understaffed and under-resourced government infrastructure has left it in bureaucratic limbo.

It is still awaiting the full results of government tests and details on how they were carried out before it can fix any glitch or rebuild its brand.

At Nestlé’s plant in Moga, Punjab, food analysts at its best-equipped lab in the country are unable to explain the discrepancy between internal tests and those run by the government that found high quantities of lead.

Since the scare began in May, it has tested 833 Maggi noodle samples at independent accredited labs, and 1,857 samples at its own high-end facilities. The tests, representing 165 million packets, revealed nothing out of the ordinary.

“We are in the dark... We are not privy to how they (the government tests) were done,” Satish Srinivasan, the 49-year-old head of Nestlé’s Moga factory, told Reuters. Reuters

Martinne Geller in London and Clara Ferreira Marques in Mumbai contributed to this s