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From Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has lamented the growing trend of fruits ripening with calcium carbide in Gombe State.
To this effect, it has celled on the public to shun the consumption and patronizing of such fruits.
Gombe State coordinator of the agency Mr. James Agada in an interview with newsmen on Tuesday in Gombe, warned that carbide-ripened fruits was responsible for cancer, abdominal pain, and other illnesses ravaging people in the country.
He also said consuming such fruits also leads to heart, kidney, and liver failure. Agada disclosed that his agency has raided a greengrocer shop where calcium carbide was being used to ripen bananas, made one arrest and confiscated the products in the Gombe metropolis.
“While we warn farmers and sellers against the dangers of using such chemicals for ripening their fruits such as banana, mango, plantain, orange, and cashew, we are also calling on the general public to beware. Just give the fruits some time and days they will naturally ripen, when you use chemicals to ripen your fruits the taste also gets affected,” the coordinator said while revealing that the public can identify artificially ripened fruits by the traces of powdery substances and how they peeled off quickly,” he said.
While assuring that the agency would continue to work hard in monitoring, regulating, and controlling substances of interest, he reiterated that NAFDAC is committed to safeguarding the health of Nigerians.
