A senior Tamil Nadu food department official told IANS that despite strict monitoring and police intervention and awareness, farmers have not stopped using calcium carbide for ripening mango fruits.
This follows medical reports that acetylene gas was released when calcium carbide was used as a reparin agent, causing cancer in those who consumed the fruit. While mango fruit looks yellow after applying calcium carbide, it will not help in ripening.
For the last few years, common farmers have been using permissive ripening agents like ethephon which releases ethylene gas to ripen the fruits.
However, the Food Safety Department has banned direct spraying of ethepho on fruits as it would be harmful.According to a senior FSSAI official, ethephon is allowed to be used only in gaseous form, but in some cases, groups of farmers spray it directly to ripen the fruits faster.
Once ethephon is sprayed directly on the fruit, it ripens within 12 hours, officials said.
FSSAI has recently conducted raids at several places in Salem district and seized around 800 kg of mangoes, which were ripened using direct spraying of ethephon.
FSSAI officials are carrying out investigations in several areas of Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Madurai to find out whether any banned ripper was used.
Salem mango farmer R. Swaminathan told IANS that he does not use any banned ingredients for cooking the fruit."Due to the unexpected drought, mango production has declined. We got less than thirty percent of the crop we had last season," he said.
He said that due to this the prices of mangoes have increased. “One kilogram of good quality mango which used to cost Rs 150 is now being sold for Rs 250,” he said.
Mango is cultivated in about 15,000 acres in Salem district and the mango market in the district has been affected due to drought.
This follows medical reports that acetylene gas was released when calcium carbide was used as a reparin agent, causing cancer in those who consumed the fruit. While mango fruit looks yellow after applying calcium carbide, it will not help in ripening.
For the last few years, common farmers have been using permissive ripening agents like ethephon which releases ethylene gas to ripen the fruits.
However, the Food Safety Department has banned direct spraying of ethepho on fruits as it would be harmful.According to a senior FSSAI official, ethephon is allowed to be used only in gaseous form, but in some cases, groups of farmers spray it directly to ripen the fruits faster.
Once ethephon is sprayed directly on the fruit, it ripens within 12 hours, officials said.
FSSAI has recently conducted raids at several places in Salem district and seized around 800 kg of mangoes, which were ripened using direct spraying of ethephon.
FSSAI officials are carrying out investigations in several areas of Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Madurai to find out whether any banned ripper was used.
Salem mango farmer R. Swaminathan told IANS that he does not use any banned ingredients for cooking the fruit."Due to the unexpected drought, mango production has declined. We got less than thirty percent of the crop we had last season," he said.
He said that due to this the prices of mangoes have increased. “One kilogram of good quality mango which used to cost Rs 150 is now being sold for Rs 250,” he said.
Mango is cultivated in about 15,000 acres in Salem district and the mango market in the district has been affected due to drought.
