Is calcium carbide banned for ripening fruit in India?

Calcium carbide is an industrial chemical that releases acetylene gas on contact with moisture. Acetylene mimics ethylene, the natural ripening hormone, so a sachet of carbide in a crate of green mangoes or bananas will turn them yellow within a day. The practice is cheap and widespread, and it is prohibited: regulation 2.3.5 of the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restrictions on Sales) Regulations, 2011 bars the sale of fruit artificially ripened with acetylene gas, commonly known as carbide gas.

The objection is threefold. Industrial-grade carbide carries traces of arsenic and phosphorus hydride; acetylene is hazardous to the workers handling it; and carbide ripening colours the skin without ripening the flesh, producing fruit that looks ready and tastes of nothing. FSSAI permits ethylene gas instead, applied at controlled concentrations in ripening chambers, and has issued guidance on that method.

Enforcement is seasonal. State food safety departments raid fruit markets ahead of the mango season and seize carbide sachets, and FSSAI issued an advisory in 2024 reminding traders and states of the prohibition. The regulation targets the practice and the trader; it creates no list of banned fruit.