Those who destroyed farmers' fruit in the name of formalin should be brought to justice, says fruit expert Dr Md Mehedi Masud, former project director of the "Nutrition Improvement through Year-round Fruit Production" project.

He also demanded compensation for the affected farmers, and said much of the public fear over formalin and carbide is based on misconceptions.

He made the remarks at a roundtable titled "Fruit Processing: Problems and Prospects" at the Jago News office in Badda in the capital on the morning of Saturday, 27 June.

"At one time a great deal of farmers' fruit was destroyed in the name of formalin," Dr Mehedi Masud said. "Let those who did it be brought to justice and let those farmers be compensated."

Formalin is called formaldehyde, and its uses are different, he said. Formalin acts only on protein, and fruit contains less than 1 per cent protein, so formalin would have no effect on fruit. That is why nobody has ever put formalin on fruit and nobody will, he said, adding that the magistrates who did this should be brought to justice.

He said officials had inserted machines meant to measure formalin in the air into fruit and declared that it contained formalin. These ignorant officers, government officers, did not even know that some formalin forms naturally inside fruit, he said.

"It does form, and there is a safe dose. The safe dose is said to be 2 to 60 ppm, which does the body no harm. Someone said there was 10 ppm, called it formalin, and tonnes upon tonnes of crops were destroyed. This was only out of ignorance," he said.

"Not all fruit ripens the same way after picking," Mehedi Masud said. "Fruit is generally of two types, climacteric and non-climacteric. In climacteric fruit such as mango and banana, starch slowly turns into sugar even after harvest, so the fruit ripens further and grows sweeter. In non-climacteric fruit such as pineapple, orange or malta, this change does not happen after picking, so they must be harvested when mature on the tree."

Controlled atmosphere technology is effective for storing fruit for long periods, he said. The oxygen in the store is reduced and replaced with nitrogen or carbon dioxide, which slows the fruit's respiration so it can be kept in the same condition for a long time.

In his own research, mangoes kept well for up to 25 days in a controlled environment at 10 to 12 degrees Celsius, he said. A 2024 trial with mangoes worth about Tk 25 to 30 lakh also showed that mangoes stay good for three to four weeks with this method.

Explaining the difference between carbide and ethylene in ripening, he said calcium carbide is banned. It produces acetylene gas on contact with water, which can be harmful to health. Ethylene, on the other hand, is a natural plant hormone that is produced inside fruit and helps it ripen.

If necessary, he said, large quantities of fruit can be ripened safely at once with ethylene according to set international standards and supplied to the market. This is the method followed around the world.

Urging people not to spread needless panic over fruit, Dr Mehedi Masud said carbide is banned, but many people wrongly lump approved ethylene into the same category. This creates needless fear and reduces fruit consumption.

The idea that formalin is put on fruit has a very weak basis in reality, he said. Consumers have no reason to worry if they wash fruit bought from the market well in clean water. So ignore rumours and eat fruit regularly, he said.

The roundtable, moderated by Jago News editor K M Ziaul Haque, was also addressed by agricultural economist Dr Jahangir Alam Khan, BARI chief scientific officer Dr Md Golam Ferdous Chowdhury, exportable mango production project director Mohammad Arifur Rahman, BSTI deputy director Enamul Haque, PRAN Group managing director Eliyas Mridha, Hashem Foods managing director Md Abul Hashem, former BAPA general secretary Md Iktadul Haque, CAB vice-president S M Nazer Hossain, Kaju and Coffee Agro executive director Md Mahatab Ali, and agri-entrepreneurs Ismail Khan Shamim of Chapainawabganj and Sohel Rana of Naogaon.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.