FDA team raids Sector 21 apni mandi in Panchkula
Tribune News Service
Panchkula, July 17
Calcium carbide is being rampantly used for the ripening of mangoes by vendors at the apni mandi of Sector 21.
A team under the supervision of Satish Singla, Joint Director, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Haryana, raided the mandi where vendors had kept the chemical wrapped in a newspaper with a carton of mangoes.
The officials immediately collected samples and destroyed over 250 mangoes. As many as 45 vendors were found using the chemical.
About 50 kg of mangoes were found packed in boxes with the calcium carbide. The samples will be sent to the food and drugs laboratory.
Joint Director Satish Singla said, “ We were keeping an eye on vendors and they were caught red-handed today.”
He added, “The chemical is cancerous. They are befooling innocent people. They wrap the chemical in a paper and keep it with raw mangoes in a box.”
As soon as the team raided the mandi, the vendors ran to the place where they had kept the mangoes but they were caught. The market committee was also called.
The use of calcium carbide is prohibited under the food safety norms. One of the vendors said, “ The chemical causes allergy when we touch it but we have no other option. We do it to earn a living.”
“One can figure out how harmful calcium carbide is from the fact that it causes allergy when we come into in its contact,” said another official of the Food and drug Administration.
