Safety debate erupts after Vietnam facility caught ripening durians with chemicals
Debate has raged in Vietnam over the use of legal chemicals to artificially ripen fruits, after a facility in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong was caught ripening numerous immature durians this way last week. On September 1, an inspection team raided a fruit facility in Di Linh District as employees were busy dousing some 700kg worth of green durians into a barrel containing a yellow liquid. The facility owner confessed to officials that the liquid was a mixture of 40 liters of raw water, 500ml of a foliar fertilizer labeled HPC-97HXN and a little turmeric powder. The immature fruits would subsequently become ripe two to three days after being soaked in the mix. Inspectors seized 2.05 metric tons of chemical-doused durians at the facility, plus 13 bottles of fungicide and four bottles of HPC-97HXN. There were also multiple containers of other chemicals and 89kg of packaging and labels in Chinese characters.
