Why are Fruits Ripened with Carbide Dangerous to your Health?

Who claims the fruit ripened this way is dangerous to health?

Now that is a specious article.

HI

So many articles are saying the same thing. I doubt about the same one but no article is suggesting fruits ripened with carbide.

Well, I ain't gunna do it. I have no idea where to find some lakh rupees to pay the fine.

Some ripening agents are natural, such as ethylene

these gases are produced naturally.

Anyways, is this the same government agency that states eating eggs and dairy produce is bad for you? Only today they found it is more healthy.

Life is full of risks.

When ethylene is used for ripening such as tomatoes and bananas it is commercial ethylene that is used. Naturally could not produce enough and quick enough. For example green bananas are imported they are stored in refrigerated (not freezing) coolers. When an order comes in for ripe bananas the greens are put into a gas chamber with commercial ethylene gas overnight. Chamber is de-gassed, bananas removed, loaded on a truck and taken to grocery distributors. Good Luck, Old Salt

Thanks for the details OS

Btw fyi, green banana's are high starch and are therefore difficult to digest

Because your government says so, that's why. This way they can fine someone up to a million Rupees and/or throw them in jail if they so choose.

Why don't you chase down all the references and verify them? The last one is the most ludicrous, it quotes a totally irrelevenat NJ government industrial safety and health website. You can't make this stuff up!!

Agreed. It all sounds very iffy to me, like it was written by somebody with a vested interest. Keeps referring to carbide ripening, no doubt for effect, though the carbide doesn't contact the fruit, only the acetylene.

And it should of course be phosphorus, not phosphorous.

I liked the part that said, "When consuming mangoes and apples it is better to slice them than to eat then directly".

What a crock.

Sounds like intestinal Hiroshima to me...; at least, it could scare the starlings away.

Because when calcium carbide absorbs water, it releases acetylene. And acetylene burns and goes BANG!

When acetylene burns, it cuts metals. Yeah, bang!Sherry

Well, that would scare the starlings away.

You can use a box with a timer on it set to the amount of time it takes the fruit to ripen.

Or visit Key West and wait outside a bar for ripened fruit.

Calcium carbide combines with water to form acetylene gas (C₂H₂) and calcium hydroxide Ca(OH)₂, releasing heat.

CaC₂ + 2 H₂O → C₂H₂ + Ca(OH)₂

Calcium hydroxide is an alkaline and a skin irritant. So you have the possibly explosive mixture of acetylene gas and air and an alkalai residue. I suspect it's not the fruits that are dangerous but the process.

Hi

Thanks for your reply. In the process no fruit is in contact with the Carbide. then why govt banned fruits ripened with carbide. Also they are saying that they are testing fruits ripened with carbide. I don't know how they are testing carbide as there are no residues of carbide or even acetylene as it is a gas. Please let me know how it is detected.

Why are you asking us to explain why any government does anything? Please ask them or somebody familiar with the rules.

One possible reason would be that this is a poorly controlled method to accelerate the ripening process. Remember governments (almost by definition) like controls. Another plausible reason is that somebody earlier used Carbide inappropriately and harmed people. If this is the reason, it will not matter if you can do it safely. Then there's the plausible greed/graft issue where someone is making a profit from a government edict. There is also the possibility that you or whomever is telling you this rule misunderstands the government rule. You do not tell us at all which government agency, let alone which country has this rule.

I cannot read you mind.

The acetylene gas released by carbide (C₂H₂) is a different gas than the ethylene gas (C₂H₄) produced naturally by plants, and even though the ripening effects are similar, they likely are not identical. The impurities of phosphorus and arsenic found in calcium carbide form arsine and phosphine gases which are poisonous.

https://www.google.com/#q=phosphine+gas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsine

http://www.academia.edu/2321590/Eating_artificially_ripened_fruits_is_harmful

"When it reacts with water, CaC₂ produces acetylene gas which is an analogue of ethylene andquickens the ripening process. It also contains traces of arsenic and phosphorus hydride. Acetylene prepared from CaC₂ also contains phosphine and some arsine up to 95 and 3 ppm respectively."

Few references were found as the evidence of its drawbacks, but I found one related reason which goes that "This chemical is extremely hazardous because it contains traces of arsenic and phosphorus which both have dangerous effects on the human body" and not because of the chemical acetylene. More researches can be done to find out the fundamental reason for it, like Isotope labeling can be applied to track the activities of a certain chemical in doubt for the harm.