The product was used to accelerate the fruit coloring. A judicial investigation was opened after the discovery of fraudulent use of ethephon on plantain bananas marketed in Martinique, announced Thursday August 25 the parquet floor of Fort-de-France.
The investigation will have to determine the responsibilities in the use of this prohibited product for bananas and the health consequences for consumers and users of ethephon, specifies a joint press release from the prosecution and the prefecture of Martinique.
This molecule would have been sprayed on the fruits picked while still green to accelerate their yellowing “in order to present for sale products that are more attractive to the consumer”, adds the press release.
#Communicated pic.twitter.com/QsN5beBjld
— Prefect of Martinique (@Prefet972) August 25, 2022
This phytoregulator, used to accelerate the ripening of certain fruits, is only authorized in Martinique for the cultivation of pineapple, in order to accelerate flowering. Traces of ethephon were found on 25 batches of bananas out of 37 tested at different stages of their distribution. Purchases from suspected suppliers were immediately suspended.
The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies ethephon as “slightly dangerous” and assured in a study in 2015 that it was unlikely to present a risk of cancer for the consumer.
The risk for users is much greater, however, because uncontrolled use can cause several types of symptoms such as skin burns, eye damage, diarrhea, stomach cramps or increased appetite. .
The Directorate General for Health, following advice from ANSES, recommends not consuming plantain bananas subjected to the application of ethephon.
Martinique, like Guadeloupe, remains marked by the chlordecone scandal: a pesticide used in the banana fields of the West Indies until 1993, causing significant and lasting contamination of populations and land. More than 90% of the adult population in Guadeloupe and Martinique is contaminated by chlordecone, according to Public Health France, and the West Indian populations have one of the highest incidence rates of prostate cancer in the world.