Determination of the shelf life and the residual effect of calcium carbide of the sampled fruits cultivated in telangana, india

This study was carried out to determine the effects of calcium carbide as a fruit ripening agent where calcium carbide was administered to 15 samples [mango (M1-M3), citrus (C1-C3), banana (B1-B3) guava (G1-G3), and papaya (P1-P3)] at three different concentrations (1 g/kg, 5 g/kg and 10 g/kg of calcium carbide per kilogram of fruit) and control (0 g/kg). The results obtained revealed that calcium carbide is a very good ripening agent with a ripening time of 2 days (48 hours) among all the fruits (mango, citrus, banana, guava and papaya at 10 g/kg). The proximate analysis of the fruits indicated that the administration of calcium carbide may result in the increase of some food contents such as ash C3 (10 g/kg) 10.50%, fibre C3 (10 g/kg) 4.20%, and lipid C3 (10 g/kg) 12.68% while the moisture C3 (10 g/kg) 78.25%, Vitamin C C1 (10 g/kg) 78.25%, protein G1 (1 g/kg) 7.60% and carbohydrate G1 (1 g/kg) 52.97% were found to decrease with increased calcium carbide administration. The moisture, vitamin C, and protein contents of the fruits showed that calcium carbide administration results in reduction of these nutrients, while the administration of calcium carbide resulted in increased of ash, fibre and lipids in the fruits studied. These results showed that even though calcium carbide may have significant fruit ripening ability, it also causes significant reduction in the fruit nutrients for the Telangana people.