Bhubaneswar: The kicking in of festive season in Odisha brings a familiar pressure into Odisha’s fruit trade – the need to move large volumes of bananas and other fruits quickly from wholesale godowns to retail markets.

That rising pressure, however, has also put the spotlight on a rampant practice in State that food safety authorities have specifically warned against: direct application of ripening chemicals on fruits.

The coordinated raids on Friday by the food safety wing, including the civic body's, at fruit godowns, leading to the seizure of Ethephon bottles and thousands of kilograms of prematurely ripened bananas, have brought the issue back into focus.

The concern is not simply that a chemical was found inside a godown. It is about how traders are using it, why the practice continues despite enforcement, and who ultimately bears the health risk when artificially ripened fruit reaches the consumer.

The first question: Why are traders turning to Ethephon?

Ethephon is a plant growth regulator. Once it breaks down in plant tissue, it releases ethylene, the natural plant hormone associated with ripening.

The regulatory distinction is important.

Controlled exposure of fruits to ethylene gas inside properly designed ripening chambers is a permitted method of fruit ripening. Directly spraying or dipping fruits in chemical solutions is a different practice and is not permitted under food-safety requirements.

This distinction creates a powerful economic incentive for traders who want to avoid the infrastructure and operating costs associated with controlled ripening.

Instead of putting green bananas through a controlled ripening process, an operator can resort to a much cheaper shortcut – applying a diluted chemical solution directly to the produce.

That changes the economics of the business.

The trader's calculation

For a wholesaler, time is money.

Green bananas entering a godown are essentially locked-up inventory until they reach the desired stage of ripeness. A faster ripening cycle means the same storage space can be used to process and sell more consignments.

The attraction of the illegal method therefore lies in three areas:

Economic factor	What the trader gains
Low chemical cost	Only a small quantity of chemical is required compared with the value of the fruit consignment
Faster turnover	Produce can be pushed towards the market much faster than through a natural ripening cycle
Higher inventory rotation	The godown can handle more consignments over the same period
Lower infrastructure investment	No properly equipped ripening chamber is required for the illegal method
Festival demand	Higher consumption during the festive period creates pressure to supply ripe fruit quickly

This is where the practice becomes commercially attractive.

A trader dealing in large volumes does not necessarily look at a single bottle of chemical in isolation. The calculation is based on how quickly a large consignment can be converted from green stock into marketable yellow fruit.

The infrastructure gap makes the shortcut more tempting

The contrast between the upfront costs of illegal spraying and building a legally compliant, automated ripening chamber perfectly illustrates why rogue traders choose to break the law.

Setting up a legal, state-of-the-art facility requires significant capital expenditure, whereas the illegal alternative has virtually no entry barriers or equipment costs.

The alternative is dramatically simpler.

Particular	Direct chemical application	Controlled ripening
Basic requirement	Spray/dip application	Dedicated ripening chamber
Infrastructure	Minimal	Insulated chamber and controlled environment
Process control	Poor/variable	Controlled
Initial investment	Very low	Significantly higher
Operating discipline	Low	Requires monitoring
Regulatory compliance	Not permitted when chemical is directly applied to fruit	Permitted when carried out according to prescribed requirements

For an organised food business, the compliant system is the obvious choice.

For an operator looking only at immediate margins, however, the calculation can be different.

The illegal shortcut transfers the cost from the trader to the food chain.

And that is precisely where the public-health concern begins.

Why a raid may still not change the trader's calculation

The seizure of chemical bottles and fruit consignments is important because it removes unsafe produce from the market and creates an enforcement trail.

But enforcement becomes a stronger deterrent only when the perceived cost of being caught becomes significant compared with the commercial benefit of the practice.

For some traders, a raid may mean seizure of a particular consignment, a notice, prosecution or financial penalty.

The commercial calculation can therefore become:

How much can be earned repeatedly versus how much might be lost if caught?

The Penalty Mismatch: Why the Threat Fails?

An analysis of the thw whole gamut of raids and FSSAi guidelines reveal that when a raid occurs, the legal penalties fail to deter large-scale operations because of how the Food Safety and Standrads Act (FSSAI) 2006 is structured and executed on the ground:

• The Section 59 ("Unsafe Food") Loophole: Under Section 59 of the FSS Act, if a food sample is legally classified as "unsafe" but the initial consumption does not result in immediate, documented medical injury, the statutory fine is capped at up to Rs1 Lakh.

• The Trial vs. Compounding Delay: Formally proving "injurious food adulteration" to trigger the maximum Rs10 Lakh fine or jail time requires formal laboratory analysis, state sanction, and a long court trial.

• To avoid decades of backlogged litigation, lower-level enforcement officers frequently resolve seasonal raid cases (happening now in Odisha) by handing down standard administrative fines for "sub-standard storage" or "operating without a valid state license," which range from Rs25,000 to Rs1 Lakh.

• The Economic Reality: A wholesale fruit trader operating a 15-tonne urban distribution godown moves thousands of kilograms of produce daily, netting profit margins of lakhs of rupees every week. Paying a generic Rs 50,000 compounding fine once a year during a surprise seasonal raid is simply treated as a minor tax or cost of business.

• The enormous windfall profits easily swallow the penalty.

The second question: What happens to the consumer?

The most important distinction for consumers is that artificial ripening itself is not automatically synonymous with poisoning.

The problem is the unregulated method of chemical application and the possibility of inappropriate chemical use or residues.

Consumers therefore should not assume that every yellow banana has been chemically contaminated, nor should they rely on one visual characteristic as a scientific test.

There is no reliable household visual test that can definitively establish whether a fruit was directly treated with Ethephon. Laboratory testing is required to confirm chemical residues.

However, consumers can still watch for warning signs.

How can buyers identify suspiciously ripened bananas?

Some physical characteristics can raise suspicion, particularly when several appear together.

What to check	More natural ripening	Warning signs
Colour	Gradual yellowing with some natural variation	Extremely uniform yellow appearance
Stem	Ripens progressively with the fruit	Stem remains conspicuously green while the body is already yellow
Texture	Ripens progressively and develops characteristic softness	Fruit appears ripe outside but remains unusually firm inside
Taste	Normal banana aroma and sweetness	Poor flavour despite an apparently ripe exterior
Ripening pattern	Gradual development of spots as maturity progresses	Very rapid change in appearance followed by quick deterioratio

What consumers should actually do

Rather than trying to identify a chemical by appearance alone, consumers can reduce risk through simple precautions:

1. Avoid unusually perfect-looking fruit

Uniform appearance by itself does not prove chemical treatment, but fruit that looks dramatically ripe while retaining an obviously immature texture deserves caution.

2. Wash fruits before consumption

Even when the peel is not normally eaten, washing the fruit before peeling reduces the possibility of transferring surface contaminants from the skin to the edible portion.

3. Do not consume fruit that has an unusual chemical odour, taste or appearance

If the fruit appears abnormal after peeling or has an unusual smell or taste, it is safer not to consume it.

4. Report suspicious consignments

Where consumers repeatedly find suspiciously ripened fruit or have concerns about a particular seller or godown, the matter can be reported to the local food-safety authorities.

The larger festival-season challenge

The timing of the latest enforcement is significant.

Festival periods bring increased demand for fruits, sweets, dairy products and other food items. For traders, that means faster movement of stock and greater pressure to ensure that produce reaches the market at the right stage of ripeness.

For enforcement agencies, it means the supply chain itself becomes the critical point of intervention.

That makes godown inspections, sampling, seizure of chemicals and traceability of consignments particularly important.

The objective cannot be limited to catching a few bottles after a complaint.

It has to address the economics that makes the practice attractive in the first place.
Also Read: Odisha Food Safety Blitz: Raids Hit Paneer & Lassi Shops But Is It Just a Showpiece?| Special Report