30 tonnes of mangoes seized in Bharuch

BHARUCH: The municipal health officials seized 30 tonnes of mangoes that were ripened by using chemicals and warned the wholesale merchants and fruit vendors of legal action during a surprise raid conducted in the town on Wednesday.
Officials raided the wholesale market running under the APMC and seized artificially ripened mangoes. With 30 tonnes of mangoes they also seized about 300 kg of carbide from different mango boxes.
The raid was conducted under the leadership of in-charge health officer JM Achariya. Talking on the issue he said, "Fruits ripened with the help of chemicals do not have any smell and only the skin's colour changes to yellow from green. They do not ripen fully. Moreover, these have sour taste. On consumption, people complain of stomach pain and other ailments."
Officials said that based on a tip-off that some wholesale fruit merchants were using chemicals to ripen the fruits, they conducted a search operation simultaneously in various godowns of fruit merchants situated in the market area.
While the mango traders stored the fruit with a few carbide stones to enable them to ripen fast, some merchants kept wax-coated apple in boxes.
Health officer Achariya added that the seized fruits would be buried in the garbage dumping site of Bharuch nagarpalika. "We may seal the shops, if they continued to adopt the same method in ripening the fruits. Legal action will also be initiated against them," he added.
Sources informed TOI that at present, one kg of carbide is easily sold at Rs 60 a kg and it is easily available in the market. When tried to contact the shopkeepers regarding the issue, they refused to comment.