GSHC plans new tech for ripening bananas

PANJIM, APRIL 20
For quite sometime now, Goa has been witnessing artificial ripening of bananas posing health hazard to the consumer. Hopefully this will be thing of the past, to a great extent, as the Goa State Horticultural Corporation has plans to set up state-of-the-art ripening facility.
“Yes, we have plans to set up ripening chambers”, managing director of the Corporation Orlando Rodrigues told Herald.
Sources said the project report is ready and that the proposal would be placed before the meeting of Corporation’s Board of Directors.
Health educators have found that artificial ripening of fruits is bad for health. Fruits are stored in closed rooms with Calcium carbide. As calcium carbide emits acetylene, it heats up the room triggering the ripening process. But this method can lead to health problems – it can cause stomach problems and lead to other allergic reactions as well.
According to a study, ripening is generally triggered by ethylene (a plant hormone which starts off the enzyme conversion process). The fruit softens and becomes sweet and edible and the colour of the fruit also changes.
The corporation is planning to provide facilities for ripening bananas in a healthy manner using ethylene gas similar to the naturally occurring plant hormone. Ripening is carried out by circulating controlled quantities of ethylene gas in the ripening chambers, Rodrigues explained. The temperature, air circulation, humidity, and gas concentration are closely monitored and the automated system monitors conditions constantly and makes sure that there is only the optimum amount of gas in the chamber.
This system, according to sources, ensures that the fruit ripens evenly from the core out. Ripening of the fruit this way will give it a much longer shelf life.
During Ganesh Chaturthi festival in the last two years, there were incidents of artificially ripening bananas by the crude method with the use of chemicals posing danger to consumers’ health. Foods & Drugs Administration (FDA) had booked two cases.