1,300 kg alphonsos destroyed

VAPI: Valsad's food and drug control department seized and destroyed around 1,300 kg of artificially ripened mangoes in extensive raids conducted in the last two days.
The checking drive was conducted on roadside vendors who had set up temporary pandals on both sides of the 60-km stretch between Chikhali and Bhilad on national highway 8.
To woo the highway commuters, these vendors had started selling mangoes early and used the hazardous calcium carbide to ripen alphonsos.
"We got to know that this roadside business has spread on this particular stretch and mangoes are being ripened using calcium carbide. We had directed all our district officials to keep continuous surveillance on these vendors," said R l Vaishya, joint commissioner, food and drug control department.
K R Kundi, designated officer of the department at Valsad said over 55 locations on this highway stretch were checked and most vendors were found putting packets of carbide in mango boxes.
"The seized quantity of calcium carbide is just around 10 kg but it was helping huge quantity of mangoes to develop its ripening colour before its natural time. All artificially ripened mangoes were destroyed in our presence immediately," he added.