The bitter truth behind pretty-looking fruit

Good looks, dictated by what should be the perfect colour, curves in all the right places and a certain oomph, do matter. In our appearance-obsessed society where women, and some men, work tirelessly to conform to an impossible idea of beauty, how can our fruit and vegetables be treated differently? How can we be seen eating or gifting a not-so-perfect apple or mango? The quest for the reddest apples or bright yellow bananas or mangoes, it seems, has almost been achieved.

If you haven’t noticed it already, something strange is happening to the fruit available in the market nowadays. Fruit stalls look bright and beautiful. However, consumers are becoming increasingly unsatisfied with the quality of the fruit they pick up from supermarkets or vendors. How often have you bought some beautiful apples only to find them tasteless and lacking in flavour or some of them developing a cottony texture within days? Discerning consumers have to search hard to find sweet and crunchy apples nowadays. The prettiest bananas are difficult to peel and tasteless to eat. Golden mangoes come with a strangely gooey core.

Meet ethephon, the hot new agro-pesticide in town that is doing much to enhance the looks of our fruit, even as its use affects their taste and flavour. Ever since the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) approved its use for ripening fruit in August 2018, it has seduced farmers and invaded fields and orchards. Last year, the FSSAI banned the use of calcium carbide, which releases acetylene gas, commonly called ‘masala’. Instead, it permitted ethephon in limited quantity, to be used in sachets on the condition that it should not come in contact with the fruit. The chemical, an organophosphorus pesticide, which goes under the innocuous description of ‘plant growth regulator’, generates the natural hormone ethylene in fruit to advance their maturity.

The FSSAI has permitted its use only in the powder form, and only to generate ethylene gas for the artificial ripening of fruit. The permissible quantity is not more than 0.5 gm for 10 kg of fruit. Fair enough. After all, fruit has to be transported over long distances and this is possible only if it is plucked when still unripe. It needs a little help to become soft and sweet during the journey.

But ethephon’s wonder (mis) use, as farmers have discovered, is that if sprayed on unripe fruit that is still on the branch, ethephon promotes a stunningly good colour and shine on the outside, even when the fruit pulp inside is still unripe. For instance, in Himachal Pradesh, hundreds of gallons of ethephon, manufactured by leading chemical companies, are bought in July and August to be sprayed directly on the still green apples on the branches, to prepare them for early marketing in the mandis. Ethephon increases the rate of anthocyanin synthesis, the pigment which gives the red apples and other fruits their colour. But these good looks, which are prized in the market, come at a price because apples sprayed with ethephon are tasteless and deteriorate faster than usual, making it harder to store them.

Traders are happy to offer a better price for the uniformly red, shiny apples. Unsurprisingly, the buzz in the mandi and retailer circuits is that fruit from Himachal Pradesh is not sweet any more. Plums, apples, pears, pomegranates, all are mostly sprayed with ethephon before harvesting.

Everyone is in on this secret, except the consumer. But who cares? The supply chain knows that the average customer still goes for the best-looking fruit in the vain hope that it will be tasty.

In August, HP Chief Minister, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, drew attention towards the rising cancer cases in the state and urged the farmers to adopt chemical-free farming. A state which was once known to produce relatively clean and chemical-free vegetables and fruits no longer commands a spot in that space. Sukhu wants to expand natural farming in HP and has initiated steps for the certification, branding and marketing of natural farming products. But all the power that he wields cannot beat the allure of market forces driving the premium on good-looking produce.

Some 10 years ago, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry in HP approved the use of 1 ml/per litre of ethephon in its package of practices (PoP) for apples. It is an accepted low dose. Ethephon was subsequently taken off the university’s PoP, but farmers didn’t stop. They are now using it in far larger doses of 4-5 ml/per litre, sprayed a week or 10 days before the harvest. The state Horticulture Department lacks the resources to monitor and stop its use, and watches its rampant misuse helplessly.

The Jammu and Kashmir Government banned the use of ethephon in 2017 due to its harmful effects on human and plant health. It is a highly corrosive acid, which can cause serious health issues if consumed, including damage to the upper respiratory tract, oesophagus burns, neurological problems and liver toxicity.

The ban was based on recommendations from the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kashmir, and the Law Enforcement Directorate.

In January 2022, the Telangana High Court, after hearing a petition that sought a ban on ethephon in that state, went along with the FSSAI recommendations. It held that if the chemical is kept in small pouches to generate ethylene gas, there is no conflict of the statutory provisions as contained in the Insecticides Rules or the Food Safety and Standards Act.

Last March, the FSSAI noted in a press release that despite these directions, traders and handlers were misusing the approved sources of ethylene gas (read ethephon) by dipping fruit in ripening agent solutions, making the fruit unsafe for human consumption. Bananas and mangoes are dunked in tubs of ethephon solution to make them pretty and soft. Scientists have reported that regular consumption of artificially ripened fruit may cause dizziness, weakness, skin ulcer and liver-related diseases.

Fruits harvested at proper maturity release ethylene gas naturally that aids in their ripening. But nobody wants to wait; everyone is in a hurry to take the fruit to the market. The buck, however, stops at the consumer’s door. The day consumer decides that he/she will not allow good looks to trump taste and flavour, we might go back to the days when the taste of fruit felt real and natural.