Chennai, May 13 : Tamil Nadu Food Department and the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) are keeping a tight vigil on mango farmers who are spraying ripening agents on raw mangoes.





A senior official of the Tamil Nadu Food Department told IANS that after strict monitoring and following police intervention and awareness, farmers have now stopped using Calcium Carbide for ripening of mango fruits.



This is following medical reports that calcium carbide when used as a ripening agent was releasing acetylene gas leading to cancer in those who consume the fruit. While the mango fruit looks yellow after applying calcium carbide, it will not help in ripening.



For the past few years, mango farmers have been using permissible ripening agents like ethephon which releases ethylene gas for ripening of the fruit.



However, the Food Safety Department has banned the direct spraying of ethephon on the fruit as it would be harmful. Ethephon, according to a senior official of FSSAI, is permitted only in gaseous form but in certain cases, groups of farmers spray it directly for faster ripening of the fruit.



The officials said that once ethephon is sprayed directly on the fruit, it ripens in 12 hours.



The FSSAI has recently conducted raids in many places in Salem district and seized around 800 kg of mangos which was ripened using direct spraying of ethephon.



The FSSAI officials are conducting checks in several areas of Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Madurai to find out if any banned ripeners were used.



R. Swaminathan, a mango farmer from Salem told IANS that they don't use any prohibited material to ripen the fruit.



'Due to the unprecedented dry spells, there is a slump in production of mangoes. We got less than thirty per cent of what we harvested last season,' he said.



He said that it has led the mango prices to go up. 'One kilogram of good quality mango which was priced at Rs 150 is now being sold at Rs 250,' he said.



Salem district has around 15,000 acres of mango farming and the dry spell has affected the mango market of the district.

/IANS