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Watermelons


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No, I'm not talking about big hooters, sorry to disappoint you. Someone told me today that many Thai farmers inject watermelons with saccharine to make them sweeter. This person indicated to me that this was an extremely common practice and that all watermelons are suspect. Does anyone know if this is true?

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Saccharine wouldn't be all that bad, really. Some years ago a guy running a vegetarian/health food restaurant in Hat Yai told me that farmers inject red colour or some other shit (can't exactly remember what) into watermelons; as a result turtoises which were fed pieces of watermelon (as is the tradition at some temples to gain merit) died.

I think it's quite possible. Anything goes as far as food production is concerned. Farmers in the North spray so much pesticide on their cabbage that the refuse to eat it themselves. I've seen them spray it, and boy, what a load that was. Ever since, I've been wary of eating that otherwise very tasty "chap-chay" cabbage/veggie soup.

Equally unhealthy treatment is afforded to strawberries in the North, which incidentally don't taste very good most of the time. Rice gets a generous amount of pesticide too.

In the absence of any sensible enforcement of food safety laws which may exist (or may not), food in Thailand is certainly much more contaminated than in Western countries. I once read that Indians on average eat food which is 40 times more contaminated than what Americans eat - the Thais may not be too far behind.

[ July 29, 2001: Message edited by: Scum_Baggio ]

[ July 29, 2001: Message edited by: Scum_Baggio ]

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I'm certainly no botanist, but I am sceptical as to whether or not that would actually do any good.

Also, it seems to me that the sheer cost of injecting hundreds of melons with saccharine would outweigh any benefit the farmer might accrue in higher melon prices. Surely he couldn't get THAT much more for them??

PhordPhan

Watermelon man

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I worked with a guy who was a professor of entomology and an expert on pesticides. He always told me that there were two fruits in Thailand that he wouldn't touch with a bargepole - watermelons and grapes.

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The way it was explained to me, maybe 1 out of 3 watermelons harvested is sweet and red, others are not. So it would be economically advantageous to inject saccharine and coloring into them rather than not sell them. As to the relative costs of saccharine and sugar, I don't have the figures.

Now I'm wondering if they do the same thing to pineapple and papaya.

This is a bummer, man.

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Originally posted by Bangkok Phil:

" ... a professor of entomology and an expert on pesticides ... told me that there were two fruits in Thailand that he wouldn't touch with a bargepole - watermelons and grapes."

Bloody hell - just when I had mustered enough courage to try one of those wines from Loei! I think I'll pass that cup.

Indeed, the grapes available in supermarkets in Thailand have a thick layer of some strange white substance on them (esp. the red); I'd always been suspicious of them. So from now on it's expensive grapes from Oz!

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I have a friend who grew up on a Virginia tobacco farm. He told me that so many pesticides are sprayed on the leaves nowadays that you dare not even touch the leaves without wearing rubber gloves. Plus you wear a mask whilst picking them or working with them. He claims that's what's killing people, not the tobacco itself. Something for you smokers to think about.

p.s. Now I'm going to go out and look for melons with needlemarks on them. Junkie watermelons ... what next?

p.p.s. Haven't you heard that farmers inject shite into durians to make them smell stronger? :-)))

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quote:

Originally posted by bungie6:

The way it was explained to me, maybe 1 out of 3 watermelons harvested is sweet and red, others are not.


I'm curious how they know which ones are sweet and red? The only sure-fire way I've ever seen is to cut the thing open and taste it.

PhordPhan

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quote:

Originally posted by bungie6:

The way it was explained to me, maybe 1 out of 3 watermelons harvested is sweet and red, others are not. So it would be economically advantageous to inject saccharine and coloring into them rather than not sell them.

But the farmer sales them whole so the buyer does not know how red and sweet they are. I would have thought the fruit vendors that sale by the slice that would 'doctor' the melon. Once you pierce the rind, the melon would go bad (rot) pretty quick.

What is the diffusion constant for a melon? Maybe I'll do an experiment to see how long it takes food coloring to diffuse through the melon. laugh.gif" border="0

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