{"id":196327,"date":"2026-02-26T22:48:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/nafdac-discovers-dangerous-chemicals-in-fruit-ripening"},"modified":"2026-02-26T23:51:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T22:51:26","slug":"nafdac-discovers-dangerous-chemicals-in-fruit-ripening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nafdac-discovers-dangerous-chemicals-in-fruit-ripening","title":{"rendered":"NAFDAC Discovers Dangerous Chemicals in Fruit Ripening"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has uncovered the use of Calcium Carbide, a dangerous chemical to ripen fruit for commercial purposes.<\/p>\n<p>NAFDAC Coordinator in Sokoto State, Mr Abdulsalam Lawal, who made the revelation known on Thursday, warned fruit dealers and sellers against such practices.<\/p>\n<p>Lawal lamented that such practices pose risk to people\u2019s health especially as fruit consumption has increased due to the ongoing Ramadan fasting.<\/p>\n<p>Lawal urged fruit dealers and sellers to stop the dangerous practice, which he said was harmful, stressing that it posed serious risks to public health.<\/p>\n<p>He warned that the use of calcium carbide could lead to severe health issues, including kidney damage, cancer, hypertension, and even terminal diseases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dWith Ramadan fasting, a period of increased fruit consumption, using calcium carbide to hasten the fruits ripening is hazardous to our health,\u201d Lawal stated.<\/p>\n<p>He explained that only welders were permitted to use calcium carbide for tasks such as melting iron, and that NAFDAC would increase surveillance to ensure that it\u2019s being used properly and not sold to fruit vendors.<\/p>\n<p>He said fruits such as mango, banana, pawpaw, water melon and others were mostly ripened with calcium carbide in the areas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has uncovered the use of Calcium Carbide, a dangerous chemical to ripen fruit for commercial purposes. NAFDAC Coordinator in Sokoto State, Mr Abdulsalam Lawal, who made the revelation known on Thursday, warned fruit dealers and sellers against such practices. Lawal lamented [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":196326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-196327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NAFDAC Discovers Dangerous Chemicals in Fruit Ripening - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has uncovered the use of Calcium Carbide, a da ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nafdac-discovers-dangerous-chemicals-in-fruit-ripening\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NAFDAC Discovers Dangerous Chemicals in Fruit Ripening\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has uncovered the use of Calcium Carbide, a da ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nafdac-discovers-dangerous-chemicals-in-fruit-ripening\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-26T21:48:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-26T22:51:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1772146280.081785.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"524\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nafdac-discovers-dangerous-chemicals-in-fruit-ripening#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nafdac-discovers-dangerous-chemicals-in-fruit-ripening\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"NAFDAC Discovers Dangerous Chemicals in Fruit Ripening\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-26T21:48:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-26T22:51:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nafdac-discovers-dangerous-chemicals-in-fruit-ripening\"},\"wordCount\":222,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nafdac-discovers-dangerous-chemicals-in-fruit-ripening#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1772146280.081785.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nafdac-discovers-dangerous-chemicals-in-fruit-ripening#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nafdac-discovers-dangerous-chemicals-in-fruit-ripening\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/nafdac-discovers-dangerous-chemicals-in-fruit-ripening\",\"name\":\"NAFDAC Discovers Dangerous Chemicals in Fruit Ripening - 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