Artificial Fruit Ripening Agents and their Impact on Health of the University Students in Lahore

To evaluate the impact of chemicals used in artificial fruit ripening and to create an approach for raising public awareness of the risks associated with artificial fruit ripening. It was a cross-sectional and observational study, in which data was gathered from 900 university students by convenient sampling technique in Lahore. The duration of research was from May 2021 to Dec 2021. The adverse reactions caused due to different fruits were recorded on a questionnaire. Candidates included in this research were, aged between 18 years to 28 years and healthy, whereas unhealthy were excluded. Out of 900 participants, 247 (27.4 %) were those who had allergies from fruits in which 47 (19.1 %) were male and 200 (80.9 %) were females. Mango and strawberry were the fruits, which caused severe allergic or adverse reactions. Out of 247 participants, 69 (27.9 %) were affected with itching and rashes, 56 (22.6 %) were affected with cough or sneezing, 33 (13.4 %) were affected with angioedema, 81 (32.8 %) were affected with other adverse reactions, and 8 (3.3 %) were affected with anaphylaxis which leads to severity and hospitalization. The use of waxes and chemicals for artificial ripening of fruits caused adverse effects on human health. Ingestion of these chemicals applied on fruit surfaces can be significantly reduced by washing and peeling them off before consumption, can lessen the dangers of their adverse effects. In addition, spreading awareness among people is a major contributing factor to reduce the fruit allergy.