Bananas ripened with toxic chemicals are being sold freely in markets across Brahmanpara upazila in Cumilla. With demand for ripe bananas rising this season, some dishonest traders and wholesalers are using chemicals to ripen the fruit quickly for extra profit. The bananas look an attractive yellow on the outside but stay raw and hard inside, and children, older people and ordinary buyers who eat them face serious health risks. Local residents are angry that the authorities concerned do not check the markets regularly.
Chemicals used to ripen bananas in a single day
Visits to markets and banana wholesale depots across the upazila found chemicals being used to ripen immature, raw bananas quickly. Locals allege that bunches are laid out in the depots and sprayed or treated with a particular chemical mixture.
Several banana traders, speaking on condition of anonymity, said chemicals are used to make raw bananas fit for sale soon after they are collected from the plantations. The skins turn yellow and soft within a day.
An employee of one wholesaler said that without chemicals bananas take time to ripen naturally, but once treated they take on an attractive colour in a day and sell easily.
Bright yellow outside, raw and hard inside
In practice, bananas ripened with chemicals are an appealing yellow on the outside while the flesh stays raw and hard.
They are sold in the upazila’s main markets, on footpaths, at shops in front of schools and colleges, and from vans going village to village to people’s doorsteps. Drawn by the colour and look, buyers purchase the toxic bananas without knowing and are cheated.
Risk of liver and kidney failure: doctors concerned
Doctors have voiced deep concern about the sale and consumption of chemically treated fruit. Sheikh Mohammad Hasibur Reza, family planning officer at the Brahmanpara Upazila Health Complex, said: “Eating fruit containing toxic chemicals and flammable substances is seriously harmful to health. It can cause nausea, stomach upset and diarrhoea soon after eating.”
He added that the harmful effects of chemically treated food can fall directly on the liver and kidneys. These sensitive organs come under strain in digestion and metabolism, and eating chemically treated food over a long period can raise the risk of kidney failure.
Calls for market monitoring and mobile courts
To curb the dishonest traders, concerned local residents have demanded that mobile courts be run at once at banana depots and markets across the upazila and that strict action be taken.
Asked about the matter, Brahmanpara Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Munni Islam said: “I will soon monitor the markets and take legal action against those who ripen bananas with chemicals.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report