•Experts raise alarm over dangers of artificially ripened fruits

By Chioma Obinna

The World Health Organisation, WHO, says that food should be a source of sustenance and pleasure rather than illness and death, but how nourishing are the foods consumed in Nigeria?

The  WHO propagates the idea that everyone has the right to safe, wholesome, and nourishing food, hence, food safety and authenticity are non-negotiable  in guaranteeing food safety. The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, or NAFDAC, toes this line.

Stories concerning the many unethical practices  that food handlers, producers, and dealers today use in the sake of quick profits while murdering unsuspecting customers of these food products are commonplace today.

Every year, an estimated 600 million cases of foodborne illnesses occur globally. Statistics also show that an estimated 420,000 people around the world are lost to preventable death every year after eating contaminated food. The WHO report also revealed that children under 5 years of age carry 40 per cent of the foodborne disease burden, with 125,000 deaths every year.

Worse still, consumption of unsafe food accounts for approximately 137,000 deaths and about 91 million cases of acute foodborne illnesses on an annual basis in Africa, the highest estimates worldwide.

In Nigeria, according to the Director, of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, FSAN, Directorate, NAFDAC, Eva Edwards, despite the lack of reliable and accurate data, over 200,000 people including Under-five children reportedly die annually from the consumption of contaminated foods.

For  many local food sellers who deal in fruits and grains like beans, profiteering is given priority than safety of the food they sell.

“I only use a small quantity of carbide to ripen my banana. It is one of the common chemicals most of us are using. You see, we use some of these chemicals because fruits like banana or mango were plucked even before they mature enough. 

“For such, if I cover them ordinarily, it will take a long time before they will ripe,” a fruit seller at the popular Cele Market along Oshodi/Apapa expressway told Good Health Weekly.   

From Ketu/Mile 12 markets in Lagos, main market in Onitsha to Sabon gari market in Kano, the story is the same.  These traders ignorantly adopt unethical practices that expose consumers to all manner of life threatening illnesses.

It is no longer news that wrong application of agrochemicals such as Sniper (DDVP) for storage and preservation of agricultural commodities such as grains (beans) and unscrupulous use of calcium carbide in ripening of fruits presents negative health outcomes.

Speaking recently in Lagos on “Food Safety Concerns: Unethical Practices”, Director, Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, FSAN, Directorate, NAFDAC, Eva Edwards lamented that foodborne diseases affect disproportionately the most vulnerable of the society, the infants, young children (under five years), pregnant women, the elderly and immunocompromised people.

Edwards said food safety should be the responsibility of everyone from farm to fork to ensure the food consume are safe and will not damage individual health.

Further, she said some of these unethical practices pose a lot of danger to health including the unethical usage of insecticides, antibiotics, and different chemical substances.

According to her, tenderizing or softening of meat with paracetamol by food vendors in the name of savings on gas, kerosene, or firewood to maximise profits could lead to liver and kidney failure.

The NAFDAC Director also listed  other harmful practices by food handlers including; the use of formaldehyde to preserve fish to keep fish looking fresh for longer, poultry injected with hormones to conceal disease, and harmful food colouring applied to fresh fruit to cover defects.

She alerted about the adulteration of red oil with Sudan dyes to enhance the red colour and adding of banned colouring to spices, and sugar-based products like fructose, glucose, sucrose, and starch to honey.

Lamenting that some producers make false claims on packaging for economic gain by selling conventional produce as organic, she disclosed that NAFDAC recently impounded 120 tons of imported animal hides and skins, popularly known as ‘ponmo’ meant for use in leather industries which had already been processed with industrial chemicals.

She said the consumption of foods high in salt/sodium, free sugars, saturated fats and trans fatty acids are increasingly affecting health sector indices and have become serious concerns.

Artificially ripened  fruits

Experts note thatwhile naturally, ripened fruits are a good source of vitamins and minerals and play an important role in preventing vitamin C and vitamin A deficiencies, these benefits are lost when they are artificially ripened.

The Director of Chemical Evaluation and Research, NAFDAC, Dr Patrick Omokpariola said ripening is the process by which fruits attain their desirable flavour, quality, colour, palatable nature, and other textural properties and the health benefits of fruits depend on how they are ripened.                          

Omokpariola said for climacteric fruits like mango, banana, and pear, during the ripening process, emit ethylene along with an increased rate of respiration while non-climacteric fruits like orange once harvested do not ripen further as they produce very small amounts of ethylene and do not respond to ethylene treatment.

Effects of carbide on health

Noting that the natural ripening of fruits takes place only after proper maturity, he explained that when calcium carbide is illegally used  to ripen fruits, once dissolved in water, it produces acetylene which acts as an artificial ripening agent. He explained that acetylene affects the nervous system by reducing oxygen supply to the brain.

 “Calcium  carbide contains arsenic and phosphorus which are toxic and contain carcinogenic properties, exposure to calcium carbide may cause severe health hazards. The use of this chemical for this purpose is illegal and must stop.

“It is explosive in nature and studies have shown that it breaks down the organic composition of vitamins and other micronutrients. Besides, it changes only the skin colour: the fruit remains raw inside.”

He warned that pregnant women particularly need to be very careful and should not consume such fruits and vegetables. He warned that industrial-grade calcium carbide is often found contaminated with trace amounts of arsenic and phosphorus, which are toxic chemicals.

Other symptoms include throat sores, cough, wheezing and shortness of breath.

He explained that ingestion of inorganic arsenic can increase the risk of skin, liver, bladder, and lung cancers, headache, dizziness, high sleepiness, memory loss, cerebral edema, numbness in the legs and hands, general weakness, cold and damp skin, low blood pressure and seizure among others.

How to ripen fruits naturally

A simple technology practiced in households to trigger ripening is to keep unripened and ripened fruits together inside an airtight container since the already ripened fruits release ethylene, ripening will be faster.

He said for avocados, mangos, pears, plums, and tomatoes, what you need is a paper bag, an apple, or banana, add your fruit into a paper bag, seal it, and wait a few days. The key here is again ethylene. Ethylene is a natural gas given off by fruit that helps in ripening.

To speed things up even faster, we recommend adding in an apple or banana. These fruits give off more ethylene than other fruits and will really aid in moving the ripening process along.

Also, flour in a bag method is also perfect for avocados. Just place your avocado in a paper bag, cover it with flour, and seal it. The flour helps concentrate the ethylene gas released by the avocado and also soaks up residual moisture. This keeps it free from mold and bruising as the fruit ripens.

Also, the rice-in-a-bowl method is good for mangos. A large bowl of rice – just enough to cover the mango.

This trick can be so effective that you can over-ripen the mango, so make sure to check on it every 6 to 12 hours.

The linen cloth method is good for peaches. Two clean linen napkins or cotton tea towels. Place your peaches stem-side down, again making sure they don’t touch. Then just cover your peaches with the second napkin or tea towel, tucking in the sides if possible, to close off the fresh air.