Hyderabad, April 17: Come summer, the entire state, in fact the entire country, wait for the King of Fruits, the mango to become available in the markets.
By mid-April, the mangoes are available in some shops and pushcarts on city roads which are bought by citizens eager to taste the delicious fruits.
However, elderly citizens prefer being cautious than eager to consume the fruits, and advise the younger generations to wait too.
Their hesitation is not unfounded, as proved by the unscrupulous traders who are willing in to cash in on the eagerness by ‘ripening’ the fruits artificially, rather than wait for the natural process to be completed.
According to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Health and Sanitation Department, these traders use ‘carbide gas’ to ripen the mangoes artificially and sell it to the public, eager to consume the fruit.
Every year, Food Inspectors from the GHMC Health and Sanitation Department conduct raids on the traders at the various fruit markets around the twin cities and penalize them for artificially ripening the fruits.
According to Dr Fazal Ahmed, head of the CureAll Remedies, mangoes which are ripened through artificial means put the health of people at risk since the calcium carbide will lead to irrecoverable damage to the brain and nervous system.
Dr Fazal says that while the natural process for a mango to ripen takes time, the use of carbide gas, produced by the carbide give the fruit the ripened colour but does not mature the fruit sugars, leaving the mangoes tasteless. Apart from this the liver may also get damaged and the digestive system gets affected. This apart, prolonged consumption of the artificially ripened fruits will lead to pain in joints, he said.
The carbide gas also acts as a neurotic agent and will lead to neurological disorders. It is most harmful to pregnant women and the unborn child. The unborn child may develop abnormalities,” Dr Fazal Ali says.
“Apart from carbide gas, ethephon and oxytocin are also being used by the unscrupulous traders to artificially ripen the fruits. This may lead to incurable diseases such as cancer since ethephon is a harmful pesticide” he adds. Even eyesight may get affected, Dr Fazal says.
Meanwhile, mango lovers insist that there is a huge difference of taste between a mango which is ripened naturally and the ones which are artificially ripened. The connoisseurs of the fruit swear that not only the naturally ripened fruits are tastier; the sweetness is also lost when this is done artificially.
The mango connoisseurs may just focus on the taste aspect of the fruits, but doctors too insist that the mango ripened artificially may prove harmful to human health in the longer run.
Keeping this in mind, the GHMC has brought the artificial ripening of mangos under the ambit of Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 under Rule 44AA of PFA Rules, 1955.
The GHMC Food Inspectors have already warned that mango traders will be raided and heavily penalized if they resort to artificially ripening the fruits.
However, some senior citizens say that the GHMC must also focus on making the public aware about the hazards of consuming this artificially ripened fruit instead of just tightening the screws on the traders.
“Till the people are aware of the health hazards, they would continue to buy mangoes just on blind faith that the fruit has been ripened naturally,” said B Kishore, a resident of Marreddpally.
His wife Padmavathi broke into the conversation and said that as long as the public demand is present, the traders would continue to resort to ripening the fruits artificially. It is important that the consumers become aware of the health hazards and thus end this menace, she said.
INN