Adulterated Vegetables

Reply of Mr. Csn Sarma on my comments was beyond all levels of relevance to the context, and hence, has been trashed at my end. more  

Patol (Parwal) and bitter guards are often adulterated with colours and can be easily identified with little alertness. Similarly, off seasoned pea-grains looking green and being sold in open are generally made green fresh by using colours and can be ensured by putting in water. Fruits are also largely adulterated by injecting chemicals and colours and using different kinds of chemicals to ripe and make them colourful and bright & attractive. Water melons are now having deep red inside with the result of injecting colour/chemical. Another kind of adulteration takes place in off seasoned vegetables. As all of us are aware, all kind of vegetables are seasonal and around 20 or 30 years back none including tomato & green coriander leaves were available through out the year. But with times our technology has improved and now all kind of green veges are easily available at all times. But probably, many of us are not aware as to what efforts are being put through to grow the veges all the times. According to a professional vegetable grower who was, incidentally, my tenant for a couple years, off season vegetables are severely frequently attacked by different kinds of insects and to save the crops from the attacks of the insects, largest quantity of lethal insecticides are regularly sprinkled their on as long as these are in the field. As he told, to save his family members from any health hazards on consuming such off season veges, his kitchen is totally free of such items. He suggested me also not to consume such veges beyond their season. As explained above, it is not necessary that veges are adulterated only by mixing colours and/or by injecting chemicals but off season vegetables are also very much adulterated and consuming them can cause serious ailments. more  

There is no simple way to detect adulteration in vegetables. Stale or lower grade vegetables may be mixed with fresh one ( e.g. potato, onion,etc.),old vegetables may be dyed (e.g. pointed gourd-parwal), some may be given a colour wash with ultramarine (washing blue) (e.g. cucumber,cabbage, cauliflower etc.), Juice from lemons may be injected out and water injected in, sap from papaya taken out, etc. List would be endless. Only way is to get self-trained and also pass on your experience to your nearest'dearest one for their benefits. more  

This is a very serious issue these days nd rightly raise. While there is no testing mechanism with poor consumer except visual caution nd advised washing etc which is normally not always possible but voice nd concern can always be raised by consumer forums to authorities. Lets join together nd raise our voice atleast through this Circle. more  

This questions is on account of general belief that all vegetables and fruits are not some way affected. I am also interested in knowledgeable response. Even in large shopping malls do not have any verification or inspection. Some large stores have turnover in tens of lakhs every day. Their system of display and storage leaves much to be desired, particularly for greens. Some veg vendors' display is pleasing to the eyes. more