Investigation: Farmers, traders use calcium carbide to ripen fruits …It can cause kidney, heart failures, NAFDAC warns
Hours after the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) issued a warning to Nigerians to shun the consumption of fruits ripened with calcium carbide, investigation by Daily Trust on Sunday has revealed that farmers and some fruit sellers apply substantial amounts of the dangerous chemical to force fruits to ripe.
Calcium carbide is a grayish or blackish crystalline lump that yields acetylene gas when in contact with water.
The Zuba fruit market, located along Abuja-Kaduna expressway, and Mararaba, a densely populated suburb in Nasarawa State, near Abuja, are the biggest fruit markets in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and environs.
These markets receive fruit supplies from all parts of the country - pineapple, pawpaw, banana/ plantain from Edo, Ondo, Kwara; oranges, mangoes mainly from Benue, Nasarawa; and watermelon mainly from the northern fringes.
At Zuba market, one of our reporters who posed as a fruit dealer was shocked to discover that hardly would one find fruits (mostly mangoes, oranges and bananas) that are free of calcium carbide in the market. Mango, banana, oranges are the most affected.
Evidence of carbide use is everywhere in the market. Fresh applications were visible and the powder spread everywhere at the mango selling spots during the visit.
Posing as buyers, the reporters insisted on the ones that did not have carbide application but were told that it was difficult to find that in mangoes presently, except the few ones that grew in the bush.
One seller who wouldn’t want his name mentioned, said the application of the chemical was done at both ends - the farmers or sellers.
The reporter spoke with six sellers who confirmed the application of the chemical on fruits, and the evidence was all around them.
Daily Trust on Sunday also found calcium carbide sellers who positioned themselves strategically by the spots where fruits are sold to easily attract customers - mostly those buying unripe fruits to prepare for sale in Abuja city.
Two of the sellers told this reporter that most of the buyers in the markets are people using it to fast-ripe fruits they sold in the city.
They, however, added that it could also be used to decongest toilets, and for welding purposes.
Mrs Susan James, who sells the chemicals where banana and plantain are sold, said, “It is a very dangerous chemical. It can kill human beings.”
Asked how she manages to keep her children safe from it, she said:” I don’t take it home. I keep it in the shop.”
Sharing the knowledge of different techniques of application, Mrs James said it could be spread on the fruits and washed or placed in the middle of the gathered fruits and properly covered to fast-track the ripening.
She, however, noted that the chemical was widely used only on banana and mangoes. She said she was not aware if some applied it to oranges and pawpaw. Consumers’ lives in danger In a telephone interview with one of our reporters, Mr Jimoh Abubakar, spokesman of the NAFDAC, noted that using artificial ripening agent such as calcium carbide could cause kidney failure, liver cirrhosis and heart failure.
He said the carcinogenic substance was harmful to humans; hence the NAFDAC warned Nigerians of its negative consequences.
“We are not saying that calcium carbide is the single factor responsible for these ailments, but it contributes.
“Fruits are being eaten all over the country, so it’s being used everywhere because there are certain fruits that are seasonal in the North and some in the South too, so people that don’t have patience quickly want to harvest and sell and make money,” Abubakar said.
He, however, advised Nigerians on signs to look out for in distinguishing artificially ripened fruits from naturally ripened ones. Signs to look out for According to the spokesman, the ultimate way of detecting a fruit that has been artificially ripened using calcium carbide is by laboratory analysis. He, however, said an ordinary person could distinguish artificially ripened fruits from naturally ripe ones by observing some brownish dark spots on naturally ripe fruits, which are absent on artificially ripened ones.
Secondly, Jimoh said, “Artificially ripened ones may have some powdery substances being left over because at times they don’t wash them very well. They are also smooth and glittery. Those are just the simple ways.”
He pointed out that NAFDAC was sensitising the general public on the use of calcium carbide because it is killing people indirectly, adding that some of its users were doing so out of ignorance.
“We are trying to alert all Nigerians. By the time we are able to police the environment, those who are doing it will be pricked by their consciences and know that they are doing something very bad,” he said.