Chemicals toxic: Food and Drug Administration tells mango sellers

'The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has come up with an initiative to make the mango sellers in the APMC market aware of the ill effects of using toxic chemicals for ripening mangoes rather than inspecting and collecting samples.

Last year in the month of May, the FDA had raided APMC market in Vashi after getting the tip-of selling ripened mangoes using toxic chemicals. Around 109 dozens of mango samples were collected for testing.

Dr Pallavi Darade, FDA Commissioner, Maharashtra, said, "This year before inspections, we thought of meetings traders and make them aware of the ill-effects. The mangoes which are ripped with carbon carbide are harmful. Ethylene chemical in certain proportion is approved by the government but it should be used to ripen the mango in a uniform way."

According to the FDA officials, ethylene chemical up to 100 ppm and ethephon chemical up to 2 ppm can be used to ripen mangoes. Dr Madhukar Gaikwad, general physician and medical superintendent of St George Hospital, said, "Mangoes which are ripen using toxic chemicals can cause dizziness, headache, skin burn, allergy, vomiting, respiratory issue, diarrhea to name a few."