The Food Safety Department here has seized roughly 6.5 tonnes of mangoes ripened using artificial and harmful agents in Madurai city over the last two days.
The seizures were made from three shops in Mattuthavani and a godown on North Masi Street, sources in the department said. They were found to be using agents like ethephon and carbide for ripening the fruits in short period.
The three shops in Mattuthavani were sealed, while the godown, where people resided, was not sealed, officials added. The seized mangoes will be dumped in Madurai Corporation’s garbage yard in Vellakkal. It can be noted that the department had already dumped few hundred kilograms of such seized mangoes earlier at the yard in Vellakkal.
With mango season reaching its peak, the Food Safety Department has intensified its raid across Madurai on artificial ripening of mangoes. M. Somasundaram, Designated Officer, Madurai, said that the problem was rampant across places.
“The demand is more. People want to buy only ripened mangoes. Hence, ethephon and carbide are widely used in a number of godowns. These can be quite harmful for the consumers,” he said.
Sources in the department said that with the limited availability of manpower and other resources, it was difficult to conduct raids in multiple places. “We are trying to seal at least some of the shops and penalise those responsible with the hope that it acts as a deterrent for others,” Dr. Somasundaram said.
While on the one hand the department seizing artificial mangoes, he said that the Commissioner of Food Safety had initiated steps by writing to the departments concerned to monitor and regulate the sale of artificial agents like carbide stones and ethephon sprays. “It will be effective to address the issue at the source,” he added.
However, he said that the best solution for the public in the meanwhile is to buy raw green mangoes and allow them to naturally ripen at homes.
