AVA assures that Agent Orange did not cause steamed sweet potatoes to turn green

A scare about sweet potatoes from Vietnam purportedly turning green when steamed due to the wartime Agent Orange herbicide is righteously shut down by the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA). 

A Facebook post had been spreading around online about the peculiar tinge, claiming that you shouldn’t eat Vietnam produce because Agent Orange “is deeply rooted in their soil”. The herbicide was used during the Vietnam War by American forces — meant to destroy bushes, trees and vegetation. 

The scare about Agent Orange is a legit one too, considering as many as 3 million people have suffered illnesses due to exposure to the chemical. Mental disabilities, genetic diseases, cleft palates and toxic breast milk were among the many adverse health effects encountered by the Vietnamese people. 

AVA however has assured that Agent Orange has nothing to do with the sweet potatoes turning into a dark greenish hue — it’s merely a matter of oxidation. 

“Sweet potatoes contains natural flavonoids and water-soluble pigments that can cause colour changes over a wide range of pH or when exposed to air. The greenish colour can be due to a natural occurrence, when the water soluble pigments in the cooked sweet potatoes are exposed to air.”

Green or not, they noted that the cooked sweet potatoes should not pose any food safety concern if they were handled and stored properly. 

So much for scaremongering.