Friday, June 20, 2014

Culture of quality should start from home – Mango and Calcium Carbide


A glass of mango juice - one of my fav's
I was eating some raw banana while reading The Hindu in the night. Suddenly my attention went to a news article - “Kerala Government may ban mangos from neighboring states”. The reason for such a possibility is given as the wide spread use of calcium carbide for ripening.

Now here in Bangalore, one kilo of mango will cost around 40-70. For premium verities one has to shell out more money. Most often I bought and ate it in raw form, in addition to that mango juices, which we drink in raw form.

As a user don’t we have the right to get good food from market? Farmers most often complain about losses they are suffering and demand government support; middle men often complain about the transportation cost; so on and so forth? But don’t they also have the responsibility of giving good product to customers?

As per DNA news report,

1. Use of carbide for mango ripening is banned.
2. It is used in gas welding as an intermediate.
3. It degrades nutrition value of the fruit.
4. Consumption of fruit ripened using carbide can cause diarrhoea, mouth ulcers, dizziness and even cancer in the long run.

We should not wake up only when our export items are denied entry in US or European ports. Assuring quality starts right from home.

Sajeev.

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