City anchor: A strict no to use of calcuim carbide on mangoes

In the season of the king of fruits, the FDA is getting ready to crack the whip on mango traders who use calcium carbide, an inorganic compound that is known to cause cancer, for hastening the ripening of the fruit.

FDA has started inspections to detect any calcium carbide use by mango traders. Besides, around 16 traders selling mangoes have been issued show cause notices for not obtaining licence under the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) Act.

FDA has warned of strict action including prosecution if calcium carbide is found to be used by traders to ripen mangoes. "So far, we have not found any defaulter but a strict warning has been issued at our workshop held with 80 traders recently," Shashikant Kekare, Joint Commissioner, FDA, (food) told Newsline.

While issuing the fiat, they have allowed the use of ethylene to speed up ripening the mangoes. Ethylene, an organic compound that can be synthesised, is found naturally in gaseous form in plants and is responsible for ripening of fruits.

Last year, Satara had reported three instances of calcium carbide being used to ripen mangoes. In a recent case in Nashik, artificially ripened Alphonsos worth Rs 1.25 lakh were destroyed by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) at a fruit market. Around 1,400 kg Alphonsos worth Rs 1.25 lakh were seized from a shop at Sharadchandra fruit market as they were being ripened using calcium carbide, Kekare said.

FDA sent four kg of calcium carbide seized in Nashik to Pune for laboratory tests.

On Thursday, a meeting was held at FDA's Pune office where assistant commissioners from various districts including Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli and Solapur submitted their reports and decided on strategies to conduct random checks at vegetable and fruit markets to prevent use of calcium carbide.

S M Deshmukh, Assistant Commissioner, Satara said most traders either sprinkle the powder or keep some pouches of calcium carbide in the room where mangoes are stored. It usually takes four-five days for mangoes to ripen naturally. It is done in just a day or two using calcium carbide, Dilip Sangat, Assistant Commissioner, FDA said.

Pune division of FDA is gearing up to conduct random inspections at fruit stalls. Shivlal Bhosale, president of the Fruit Merchants Association, told Newsline the Association has 250 fruit vendors and instructions have been issued against use of calcium carbide.

According to FDA officials, there has been a sizeable impact of awareness programmes do drive home the point.

"We have allowed the use of ethylene gas," Kekare added.