Be cautious when eating artificially ripened off-season fruits in winter as they may cause harm to your body
Core tip: Some unscrupulous vendors use chemical agents to ripen off-season fruits for sales, which can be harmful to human health.
“The value of off-season fruits compared to seasonal ones lies in the novelty of eating them fresh, not in their nutritional value.” Those colorful, bright, and tempting off-season fruits are often grown in greenhouses, lacking the necessary sunlight, wind, and soil conditions of seasonal fruits. Therefore, the most nutritious fruits are often the cheapest varieties, which are usually the seasonal ones.
It's best to buy only as much fruit as you plan to eat, as each fruit has its own optimal storage temperature and shelf life. The longer they are stored, the more their nutrients and flavor deteriorate. Most fruits are suitable for storage in the refrigerator without washing, otherwise they are prone to spoilage and rot, and should be consumed within a week. However, fruits like bananas, pineapples, mangoes, papayas, and lemons should be stored in a cool, dark corner indoors and are not suitable for long-term refrigeration.
In addition, some unscrupulous vendors use chemical agents to ripen off-season fruits for sales, which can be harmful to human health. The following are several dangerous off-season fruits.
1. Grapes
Some unscrupulous vendors and farmers use a ripening agent—ethephon. Users dilute ethephon with water, immerse unripe green grapes in the solution, and within a day or two, the green grapes turn purple. Although this agent has low toxicity, long-term consumption is harmful to human health.
2. Bananas
To make the banana skin look tender and yellow, some unscrupulous vendors use sulfur dioxide to ripen them, but the flesh remains hard and not sweet at all. Sulfur dioxide and its derivatives are not only harmful to the human respiratory system but can also cause damage to the brain, liver, spleen, and kidneys, and even pose a risk to the reproductive system.
3. Watermelons
Excessive use of ripening agents, expanders, and highly toxic pesticides can make watermelons toxic. Such watermelons have uneven stripes on their rind, and when cut open, the flesh is exceptionally bright red, but the seeds are white, leaving an aftertaste in the mouth.
4. Strawberries
Strawberries that are hollow, irregularly shaped, and unusually large are generally caused by excessive hormones. After using ripening agents or other hormonal drugs, the growth period of strawberries is shortened, and their color becomes fresh, but their flavor becomes bland. This type of strawberry should be consumed with caution. Eating too much can affect normal human development, such as causing premature development in children.