After monitoring quantities of onions infected with the “black fungus,” amid widespread fears and unconfirmed information about its health risks, the Libyan capital Tripoli and its environs are seeing active inspection campaigns in vegetable markets.
Inspectors from the Food and Drug Control Center seized infected imported onions in the cities of Zawiya and Sabratha, as well as in the Janjor, Suq al-Juma, Hay al-Andalus, and Qasr bin Ghashir areas of Greater Tripoli.
Not enough
The centre said in its campaign statements that the seized onions were “unfit for human consumption” because they were withdrawn from the market and destroyed by the sanitary methods used, prompting preventive legal action against the suppliers.
Onions exhibit spoilage symptoms such as “rotting, external germination on them, the presence of fungi inside, an unpleasant odor, and a change in color.”The Center indicated that samples have also been taken for laboratory tests.
In order to limit its spread in the markets, according to the Control Center, the Center received instructions from the Public Prosecutor, Counselor Al-Siddiq Al-Soor, to intensify inspection campaigns in vegetable markets to ensure compliance with health obligations and requirements. Procedures in preservation and storage operations
Black fungus
Libyan pages circulated on social media saying that the campaign captured images of onions, warning that they were infected with a “deadly black fungus” believed to cause cancer, but the allegations were denied by the head of Friday’s market unit. Abu Bakar Marawan works at the Food and Drug Control Center.
According to Marwan, who explained that the black substance covering the seeds of the confiscated onions is the Aspergillus fungus, known as “black Mould,” and has nothing to do with the black fungus, “Aspergillus” is a plant fungus that affects certain types of fruits due to temperature changes, poor storage, and transportation. and spreads on vegetables, and there is no evidence that it causes cancer.
Dangers of “Aspergillus“
However, “Aspergillus” is not without its dangers, as the head of the Friday Market Unit at the Food and Drug Control Centers warned, suggesting that frequent consumption of infected onions can cause it to accumulate in the human body. This can lead to kidney failure and other health problems.
The quantity of onions in the market that reached an advanced stage of the infection prompted the Center for Food Safety to take action recently.
According to Marwan, who advised citizens to pay attention to the sorting process and avoid buying vegetables that show any symptoms, to ensure consumer safety, quantities of severely infected onions have been withdrawn. even a little, infection with fungus.
