A yet another shocking investigative and explosive report has revealed that the fruit you are gnawing on to do your body the desired good, may send you six feet below in a black body bag.

Fruit lovers can no longer munch away at their desired fruits with reckless abandon as it used to be. Now, as you munch, sU-Ck, lick or drink, you have to keep your eyes and other senses wide open – including your sixth sense.

That fruit you are gnawing on may do your body the desired good you hope for, or send you six feet below in a black body bag. That is the effect the demand for fruits have caused in Nigeria, and Lagos especially.

Why the message of doom you may ask. It is because of the penchant of some daredevil fruit sellers who hasten the ripening process of the fruits with harmful chemicals such as carbide.

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Gone were the days when food poisoning was something done deliberately for prepared food for certain people. These days, a bite of a seemingly harmless, nutritious, delicious and rotund apple or banana can result in unexpected food poisoning – all through carbide.

Calcium carbide is a chemical used for artificially ripening fruit. According to experts, when calcium carbide comes in contact with moisture, it produces acetylene gas, which is quite similar in its effects to the natural ripening agent, ethylene. Acetylene acts like ethylene and accelerates the ripening process.

Industrial-grade calcium carbide may also contain traces of arsenic and phosphorus, which makes it a human health concern. Other ripening agents include ethephon (an insecticide), ethanol, ethylene glycol and methanol

While the use of this chemical for this purpose is illegal in most countries, Nigeria appears not to have gotten the memo. If it has, the people’s consciousness has not been awakened enough to the effects in the fruits being sold and distributed here in Nigeria.

Just over a year ago, a reporter was poisoned through these process and ended up dying due to complications thereafter.

At Agboju market in Amuwo Odofin in Lagos, a source at the market pointed at a spot where fruits were being forced to ripen with chemicals. She explained that the fruits that were unripe were forced to ripen within a day, as the sellers use carbide to achieve that purpose.

In an attempt to speak with some of the fruit sellers, they all claimed to be getting their friuts almost ripe before they sell them. Yet our reporter saw heaps of banana being carried into the spot he was told the ripening normally take place.

A seller who pleaded anonymity said that it is a trick they have been using for a long time and it helps their business. According to her, they buy unripe plantain and banana in bulk. Since they cannot predict when they will sell everything, they ripen them batch after batch for daily sales.

The seller, however when confronted with the fact that the chemicals they use are harmful, said that she had heard of such before, but she and her colleagues are careful as the make sure that the chemicals do not directly come in contact with the products.

A reporter also went into the popular Sunday Market at Ogba, to speak with some fruit sellers and got their opinions and methods of ripening fruits. Many of them claimed to know nothing of fast-ripening of fruits.

A woman who refused to give her name however shared that it is mostly bananas and plantains, which she sells that she puts through many processes. She, however, explained that she does not make use of any form of chemicals, but she wets the fruits with normal water and then wraps them in several layers of a sack for a couple of days.

She explained that her banana and plantain stocks, which are ripened in this manner usually come out fresh and can stay for days without going bad. She also added that she was aware of the fact that people use carbide to ripen seasonal fruits like mango, banana, cucumber, plantain, pineapple, watermelon, guava, pawpaw and even others like apple, tomatoes, and grapes. But she said those who do that know themselves, but she and her colleagues in the market do not.

These act were found to be common in urban cities, especially in Lagos. Since