The fruits Sri Lankans eat
There is hardly a debate on the point that naturally grown and naturally ripe fruits are a vital ingredient of human growth, maintenance and nutritional balance.
However the term ‘natural’ provides the insight for answers we seek. Any external addition or action that expedites the natural growth, alters the natural taste, modifies the original form, extension of natural life span of the fruits, etc are consideredas ‘artificial’.
The fruits marketed on mass and commercial basis are subjected to artificiality at various stages.
- Stage 1: Crop growth
- Stage 2: Fruit growth
- Stage 3: Fruit storage
- Stage 4: Fruit transportation
- Stage 5: Fruit re-storage
- Stage 6: Fruit re-transportation
- Stage 7: Retail fruit storage
- Stage 8: Domestic storage
In different scenarios like hotels or dedicated fruit outlets, the above process can slightly be distinctive. Yet, the artificiality into the fruits are injected in the form of chemical based fertilizing, chemical based weed killing, pesticide use, growth hormone addition and pre-mature ripe techniques and artificial life expansion methods.
More the volume of production, more the distance of transportation, more the waiting time in storage or retail shelves. It is only a common occurrence that more quantities of diverse artificiality are injected into the fruit we consume – mostly as metro dwellers.
Long term consumption of these artificially modified fruit can cause harm to the human body that the support it gives.
Certain organizations follow global food safety standardizations such as HACCP (Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points) and ISO 22000 FSMS – Food Safety Management System. In all those management guides – the concept is commonly known as ‘farm to mouth’ – is an indication that the system covers the process in totality.
Nevertheless, the common issue is that not every citizen can afford to purchase or patronize the localities that market certified food – and even in some of those – there have been detected deviations in the actual practice.
Few solutions within our visibility and control:
- Lets ‘pick fresh – eat fresh’ be your motto.
- Stop haphazard buying
- Handpick an authentic vendor
- Try quality over price
- Inspect natural freshness
- Avoid price slashed fruits
- Curtail domestic storage time
- Preserve right temperature
- Try direct farm purchasing
- Explore your own fruit growth
(The article was written for the recent BT-RCB poll on pesticides in fruits but was held back due to space constraints)