Use of calcium carbide for ripening fruits goes unchecked

Ritika Jha Palial

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 23

Use of poisonous chemical calcium carbide to ripen fruits is rampant in the city’s largest fruit and vegetable supplier market in Sector 26. Even a month after the sale of mangoes began in the city—the Food Safety Cell has not done anything beyond taking a few samples of fruits and preparing drafts to hold a seminar for the sensitisation of vendors.

A visit to the backyards of the market on two consecutive days (Friday and Saturday) revealed that not only do the vendors use the chemical (available for Rs 10 or 20 per 10 grams) freely for ripening of mangoes and bananas, but also share the chemical with visitors in smaller quantities to make quick bucks.

This reporter and photographer posed as common visitors and asked a vendor for a “shortcut for ripening mangoes”. The vendor immediately took out a small packet wrapped in several folds of a newspaper. “This will be sufficient for ripening 25 to 30 mangoes at one go. Here, we all use it,” he said.

Asked whether he was aware of the risks of being exposed to the chemical, he said, “Babuji humein naukri karni hai. Kabhi thoda allergy ho jati hai haath mein agar masala lag jae, lekin paise to kamana hain (sir, we are poor employees. Sometimes we suffer from allergy on the hands if exposed to the chemical, but at the same time we also have to earn money).”

Several such small packets of chemical were seen lying on the ground in the market area xposing visitors to the emissions of the hazardous chemical.

The Designated Officer(DO), Food Safety Cell, Sukhwinder Singh, maintained, “A number of samples have been taken by our team in the past couple of days for testing fruits.” Dr Rajinder Sharma, another DO, said, we are going to hold a seminar to sensitise vendors in the coming week.