FRUITS AND VEGETABLES WE EAT,HOW SAFE ARE THEY?

FRUITS WE EAT –HOW ARE THEY SAFE ON HEALTH GROUNDS;--
drnakipuria@gmail.com
Since ancient time Fruits are the important meal or refresher nutrient of Human as it is easily available most natural food without any toxicity or harm to our body beside its easy availability,no need of processing before eating and in rarest place like ‘VAN OR FOREST’ where human race use to live and walk around for day to day activities and lifehood without any price or economical burden.In modern times as cities and town formed at cost of deforestation ,fruits and vegetables the most wanted non animal Biological food product beame commercially cultivated and preserved beside its occasional presence in some households particular in villages or their farm House or Bagans or courtyard.
Now a days,as science and health awareness progress with economical developments fruits and vegetables are consumed more frequently and markets are flooded with them.As Modern Human nature,he wants to eat the things which are newly arrived or Fruits and vegetables which are unseasonale as Mango,Licchi in month of FEB-JUNE,Grapes in june to September beside this he wants to take fruits as many Indian like fruits from from Italy,Japan,Usa,china etc rather that Indian Variety is alco available.These unseasonale fruits and vegetables are available as preserved packed food from last year in COLD STORAGE,BIG FREEDZES OR COLD CHAIN or mostly unripe fruits plucked from trees much before thei ripening time.
There are two types of fruits,one fruit ripe only on plants or trees another are Climacteric fruits like mango, banana, papaya, sapota and custard apple are often harvested in a mature but unripe condition and then subsequently allowed to ripen by natural release of ripening hormone by commercial using Ethylene Gas or by use of Calcium Carbide or smoking in each box /container of fruits commercially. However, natural ripening in some fruits is a slow process, which leads to high weight loss, desiccation of fruits and uneven ripening.

Use of Calcium Carbide:-
It is mostly used method for ripening of fruits like Mango,Bananna,Licchi,Pappaya,Apples,Grapes,oranges etc.In small box a packet of 50-100gs of calcium carbide is kept along with food and box is closed,calcium carbide will absorb water from environment and will produce Acetylene gas which causes artificial ripening of food by producing heat inside box.Some traders ripen fruits like banana in enclosed chambers where large quantities of calcium carbide is put and water sprinkled before sealing the chambers. Though the released acetylene triggers ripening process in fruits, it is an inflammable gas involving risk of fire hazards.However, calcium carbide contains chemical impurities such as arsenic hydride and phosphorus hydride that are highly carcinogenic compounds. Improper use of calcium carbide can therefore cause chemical contamination of fresh produce. Further fruits ripened with calcium carbide though develop attractive surface colour, are inferior in taste, flavour and spoil faster.These fruits are soft as starch turns into sugar by heat ,often uniform in color,may have black patches or multiple colors or completely yellowish(Mangoes and Bannanss ),Some time usually rotten from inside ,apply few drops of iodine if it remains yellow means food is rotten as starch or fresh fruit will turn it blue from yellw.Government of India has banned the use of calcium carbide for ripening of fruits under PFA Act 8-44 AA, 1954.
But inspite of every good warning we are so much eager to eat Fruits and vegetables pretimely and prematurally that we donot mind whether these are asfe for our helath or not,Arsenic phosphorus ,calcium carbide beside producing ill effects on our Gastro Intestinal tract,Liver,Kidneys and skin can produce cancer of lung,liver etc.
Alternatives safe method of ripening fruits;
Ethrel or ethaphon (2-chloroethane phosphonic acid) is a commercially available plant growth regulator, which is a source of ethylene similar to that naturally released by fruits during ripening process. Although dipping of fruits in diluted ethrel solution is recommended for enhancing ripening, it is a cumbersome process and may cause some problems if commercially available ethrel contains chemical impurities. Further, Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) in its advise issued during May 2010 permits only the use of ethylene in gaseous form for artificial ripening of fruits.

To overcome such expensive artificial ripening which is mostly adapted in developed nations like USA,UK,CANADA,JAPAN etc, An alternative simple method is standardized for enhancing the ripening process by exposing the fruits to ethylene gas released from ethrel/ethephon solution. This is a simple method wherein small quantity of alkali is added to ethrel to release the ethylene gas and the fruits are exposed to this liberated gas in air-tight portable plastic tents. In this method the fruits are placed in ventilated plastic crates inside air-tight plastic tents of known volume. Required/calculated quantity of ethrel is taken into a container and placed inside the tents to which required quantity of alkali (Sodium hydroxide) is added for releasing the ethylene gas from ethrel solution and the tents are sealed air tight immediately. A small battery operated fan can be placed inside the tent for uniform circulation of released ethylene gas. After 18-24 hours of exposure the fruits are taken out for completing the ripening process at room temperature or 18-24°C especially for Robusta banana. Using dessert coolers during ripening at room temperature would help to reduce the temperature and increase the relative humidity thereby reducing the weight loss.Mango fruits exposed to 100 ppm ethylene gas for 24 hrs can be ripened in 5 days as compared to 10 days in non-treated fruits without adversely affecting the quality. Similarly banana bunches/hands exposed to 100 ppm ethylene gas for 18 hours can be ripened in 4 days at RT and 6 days at 20°C. Papaya fruits exposed to ethylene gas ripened with uniform surface colour and uniform firmness in 4 days at ambient temperature. Therefore, use of ethylene is suggested as a safe alternative to calcium carbide for ripening of climacteric fruits.

But even use of ethylene gas commercially used in modern ripening chambers as written above and widely practiced in developed nations which requires huge investment and is not economical for farmers or small traders so in our country most of farmers,marketing people and Sabji Mandi and Fruitsellers and even road side hawkers and feriwala all use Calcium carbide for ripening of fruits(one kg of calcium carbide cost Rs.25/- and can ripe 10 tons of Fruits) as regulating authorities,Food safety,hygiene departments and analysts hardly work on ground and all kept mum for bribes and kickbacks so use of such contaminated fruits are widely prevalent in society and have acquired almost in legal daily business of crore,causing so open day light Health hazards to mass and every affluent,middle and poor class of our country equally and SELF AWARENESS and CONTROLof taking such Fruits and vegetables pretimely and prematurally in unseason period ,now a days conscious people even donot use fruits and vegetables grown using manures and fertilizers mixed with spray of insecticides and pesticide,they simple use fruits and vegetables either grown in their field or from a known company where fruits and vegetables are neither riped nor grown by use of fertilizers that is called ORGANIC PURE NATURL FRUIT AND VEGETABLES.SO WE SHOULD NOT EAT SUCH UNSEASONAL FRUITS AND EVEN EATING THEN WASH IT 2-3 TIMES IN PURE TAP WATER OR COOLED BOILED WATER BEFORE EATING.It is high time that our government should lay high standard of food hygiene and toxicity standards with repeated cinspections,raids and catching blackmarketers but all are sleeping in corruption pushing HUMAN RACE TO SUCH FATAL OUTCOMES