I stumbled upon an interesting article a week ago, with the headline ‘Six Easy Ways To Find Out If Your Mangoes Are Chemical-Free.’ Naturally, I clicked through because I was curious about what was and wasn’t safe for consumption. The article urged readers in India to check the fruit’s skin colour carefully, then smell it to try and detect anything artificial, leave it if it felt too soft, look for the presence of too many spots, and finally take a bite to see if it left a bitter aftertaste.

This felt like a lot of things to watch out for, and I wondered if the average housewife (because most Indian men won’t condescend to visit a market) had the time to go through all of these steps before making a purchase. Once I was done reading, similar articles began to crop up, such as one titled ‘Natural vs Chemically Ripened Mangoes: Easy Ways to Spot the Difference.’ It felt as if a lot of publications had put in the time and effort to warn Indian consumers about fruit.