Lately, there have been unusually large watermelons and kiwi fruits on the market. This is largely attributed to the fact that farmers, especially in China, are overusing growth chemicals to raise the weight of their harvest, in a bid to make more money.
MSNBC claims that the substance being used is not outlawed in China, and it is also allowed in the United States for use on kiwi fruit and grapes. About 20 farmers and 115 acres of watermelon around Danyang area were affected.
According to MSNBC, the only solution to this is to cut down the watermelons and feed them to fish and pigs.
According to CCTV, farmers use a growth accelerator, known as forchlorfenuron, during wet weather. Forchlorfenuron is registered for use on grapes raisins and kiwi in the U.S., Egypt, Europe, Chile, Canada, Mexico, Turkey, New Zealand, South Africa, and Israel.
What is Forchlorfenuron?
This is a plant growth substance, called cytokinin. It promotes cells division and delaying of cell death. It acts directly on septins, the main factors in mitosis (cell division)
The end result is too large fruits, looking as they’ll burst any moment. Excessive application of forchlorfenuron leads to more rapid cell division, which is a cancer-like function.
The higher number of cells may mean bigger fruits, but it doesn’t really translate to more nutrients. In fact, the fruit’s nutritional quality and stability tends to diminish.
According to the Pesticide Fact Sheet of US EPA, forchlorfenuron causes growth retardation, emaciation, inflammation, as well as increased mortality in the lab rats.
How to Identify Fruit Grown with Growth Speeding Chemicals
First, the fruit lacks flavor, even though it looks ripe and plump. Namely, Forchlorfenuron and other growth accelerators stimulate cell division and speed up the fruit’s growing process, but at the same time drains its flavor. This is actually logical, in that flavor comes with time and it is an indication of ripeness.
When it comes to watermelons, if they’re large and bright-colored on the outside, while the inside is more white than deep red, they’ve been treated with forchlorfenuron. The treated watermelons also have white seeds and the fruit is quite fibrous. It might also have a strange shape.
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