The district food safety officials carted around five tonnes of mangoes to dumping yard after finding the residues of harmful artificial ripener ethephon in the stock during a surprise inspection at the mango market here on Tuesday.
A team of officials including the sanitation inspectors from the Kakinada Municipal Corporation led by Food Safety Inspector Nageswara Rao performed spot lab tests on the samples collected from the market yard.
Tip-off
“Acting on a relibale tip-off about suspected residues of ethephon in mangoes, checks were conducted and stocks were found laced with the banned artificial ripener,” Mr. Nageswara Rao said.
Market yard
chief cries foul
Meanwhile, mango market yard president Eetha Sathi Babu took exception to the move of the officials to inspect the market yard randomly, claiming that the traders had incurred a loss of around ₹2 lakh.
“We are wondering as to why the officials are collecting samples from the roadside eateries. The mango market is no way connected to the use of ethephon. We are not encouraging such malpractice,” he said. Stringent action will be initiated against those responsible for the malpractice, he added.
