Be careful while buying mangoes, 50 kilos of mangoes ripened with toxic chemicals seized

KOLLAM: Beware of artificially ripened mangoes known as the king of fruits. 50 kg of mangoes ripened with calcium carbide were seized during an inspection at the fruit trading establishment at Moonamkutty on the Kollam-Thirumangalam Road. The inspection was conducted by health inspectors of Kilikollur primary health centre as part of the health department's Healthy Kerala campaign.

The health department after checking markets and hotels, reached the fruit trading establishment. After checking other fruits, they opened one of the boxes full of mangoes and felt a lot of heat. It was initially confirmed that calcium carbide was used after finding that something was applied on top of the mangoes.

The other four boxes were in a similar manner. With this, the health department officials called the food safety department officials to the spot and took the samples and sent them to the lab for testing. The shop has been temporarily sealed. The inspection was led by health inspector Santhosh Kumar, junior health inspectors R S Sujith and M Manu.

The shop owner first said the mangoes were bought from Tamil Nadu. He later corrected it and said it was bought from Kollam. He finally revealed that the mangoes were ripened with calcium carbide bought from Kundara. The calcium carbide can lead to headache, dizziness, acidity and indigestion in addition to future cancer of oesophagus, colon and liver.