VIJAYAWADA: Officials of Food Safety Department and Vigilance and Enforcement (V&E) have jointly cracked a whip on errant fruit vendors who were found using banned calcium carbide powder for artificial ripening of mangoes in Gudivada and Machilipatnam on Wednesday.
Officials were shocked when they came to know that more than 90 percent of fruit vendors use calcium carbide powder. “After two years, the officials found merchants using high quantities of calcium carbide powder to ripen mangoes stored in godowns. We stopped the sale of calcium carbide in the past,” said assistant food controller N Purnachandra Rao.