CANACONA: The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) on Tuesday destroyed around 2,500 kgs of mangoes it had seized at the Saturday weekly bazaar on suspicion that they were ripened using calcium carbide.
On Saturday, FDA seized 100 crates of mangoes worth Rs 3.10 lakh.
After conducting a qualitative test on the mangoes, the FDA found traces of calcium carbide compound, dangerous for human health, on the seized mangoes. Later, FDA obtained permission from a local Judicial Magistrate First Class for destroying the contaminated mangoes and then in the presence of police and NGO members destroyed the entire lot by burying them at the garbage treatment plant at Dumane in Canacona.
Sources at Canacona police station said that the chemical powder found in the possession of a mango merchant Suresh Fakirappa Upin, a native of Haveri in Karnataka, was seized together with the mangoes suspected to be chemically ripened when he was caught applying the power on raw mangoes in order to hasten the process of ripening at the weekly bazzar on Saturday in Canacona.
Police also said that on testing, the chemical powder was found to be calcium carbide and the surveillance fruit samples after subjecting to qualitative chemical analysis where found to have traces of calcium carbide.
