Jaipur, May 17 (IANS): Food Safety officials issued challans against four traders after seizing a huge quantity of fruit ripening chemicals from their shops in Muhana Mandi's vegetable market here on Thursday.

The seizures were made on Thursday morning during an inspection led by Pankaj Ojha, Additional Commissioner of the Food Safety Department.

Ojha said, "Chemicals were kept between heaps of papaya and mango baskets and they were used to get them ripened. Small packets of these chemicals were seen in different places among the fruits. Apart from this, there were large quantities of raw bananas in gas chambers which were constructed in (some) shops. These bananas were also being ripened with the use of chemicals."

Ojha said that a Food Safety team inspected shops, firms and warehouses of fruit sellers following the direction of Food Safety and Drug Control Commissioner Iqbal Khan.

Challans were issued against four traders and fruit samples collected from their shops were sent to the Central Food Laboratory, Jaipur for testing. Further actions will be taken on the basis of lab reports, officials said.