Artificially ripened mangoes flood Imphal streets
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 22 2015 :
Mango, one of the more nutritious fruits, may not be nutritious anymore particularly in the heart of busy Imphal town.
With artificially ripened mangoes flooding every street, health-conscious people have started sounding the Food Safety Standard Wing.
Fruit stalls along Thangal Bazar and Kasturi Bridge are flooded with mangoes which have been ripened artificially to make it look juicier and pulpier.
Though some consumers fall prey to such slick marketing, a large number of health-conscious consumers have expressed concern over the matter.
Speaking exclusively to The Sangai Express, one of the fruit vendors in Thangal Bazar informed on anonymity that most of the fruits are imported from Chennai, Bihar and Kashmir.
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Fully ripe mangoes are sold at Rs 80 per kg while the half-ripe ones are sold at Rs 100 per kg.
"Artificially ripened mangoes tend to rot after two days.
Therefore, we cannot sell it after any bandh or a blockade.
But normally, we sell fruits worth about Rs 1000 to Rs 3000 in a day," he added.
Not only in Thangal Bazar and Kasturi Bridge are these artificially ripened mangoes sold, a good number of street vendors along Ima Keithel can also be seen selling the same.
Though the Food Safety Standard Wing, Manipur has warned the people on the hazardous ripeners used in ripening the mangoes artificially, stringent drive against the artificial ripening has not been intiated till now.
Among the other fruits on sale as apples, grapes etc.
Two varieties of apple are sold at different rates.
The first one costs Rs 200/kg and the other Rs 280/kg.Likewise, red grape variety costs Rs 500/kg, green grape variety costs Rs 300 and black grape variety costs between Rs 200 and Rs 300 .
It may be noted that Prime Minister has announced to make the North East States of India as Organic States.