Message-ID: <200001151007.FAA41348@pilot004.cl.msu.edu> Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 05:07:09 -0500 From: Donald Z Osborn <mailto:osborndo@PILOT.MSU.EDU> Subject: Calcium carbide for ripening fruit To: mailto:DEVEL-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
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For a number of years, some fruit vendors in West Africa have used calcium
carbide to ripen immature fruits for sale. This permits the growers to harvest
before maturity to get money sooner (sometimes the growers are the ones using
the carbide, sometimes the retailers who buy the fruit - as I understand it).
I learned of this process a decade and a half ago, but just recently read about
it again in one of the papers here in Bamako ("Le Malien" 30 Dec. 99). The
article says that the health effects are not yet known, although some people
claim to have suffered stomach upset, diarrhea, and even allergic type
reactions from fruit so treated. The recommendation (a good idea in any case
these days) is to wash the fruit well and not to consume the skin (which is
sometimes done with mangos).
The fruit is wrapped up and moistened calcium carbide is placed over it; the
whole package kept in a closed space. The chemical emits heat and acetylene
which hasten the ripening of the fruit.
It is usually fairly easy to identify such fruit, and some people try to avoid
it. But as far as I know, such market pressures have not been a disincentive
to contunued use of the practice.
How common is this practice elsewhere?
Does anyone know of more definitive info on the health aspects?
--
Don Osborn mailto:osborndo@pilot.msu.edu
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"A superficial culture, unsupported by a cultivated morality, is
as `a confused medley of dreams.'" `Abdu'l-Baha (1876)
"The rise and fall of images of the future precedes or accompanies
the rise and fall of cultures." Frederick Polak (1960)
"Les sociétés occidentales ne se voient plus clairement dans le
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