Artificially ripened mangoes seized in Kovai

Officials from the department said that every year they used to conduct the raids in April. But this year they held the raid earlier following a series of complaints of artificially ripened mangoes being sold in the wholesale and retail markets in the city. 

The officials conducted the raid in two teams – one led by Vijay, Designated Officer, OLS and the other by Food Safety Officers K Chandran and SR Gerald Sathya Punithan. One team raided 10 wholesale shops at Ukkadam seized two tonnes of artificially ripened mangoes from five of them.

The second team raided a godown and a few wholesale shops at Karuppa Gounder Street and seized three tonnes mangoes. They also seized about 50 kg of artificially ripened sapotta from another shop there. 

The raids were conducted from 9 am to 1 pm. The seizure was primarily Imam Pasant, Malgova, Alphonsa and a few smaller varieties of mangoes that the traders purchased from Pollachi, Anamalai and Palakkad areas. These were then taken to retail outlets in the city. 

The seized mangoes were taken to the compost yard at Vellalore where it will be used to produce biogas.