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/RECORD NO.076
記録 / REC076
BREAKINGRio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil

December 2025 — The Brazilian town of Rio Claro repeals an 1894 resolution banning the sale of watermelon, 130 years on.

At the time, fruit was believed to spread disease.
Logged 2026-06-25 20:00:00 (JST)
The Brazilian town of Rio Claro repeals an 1894 resolution banning the sale of watermelon, 130 years on.

In December 2025 the municipal council of Rio Claro, in the interior of São Paulo state in southern Brazil, repealed a resolution, made in 1894, that banned the sale of watermelon.

The original resolution, dated 30 November 1894, forbade the sale of watermelon and other fruit thought to harm public health, with a fine of 5,000 réis. Epidemics were frequent at the time, and such fruit was believed to spread disease.

The repeal was proposed by councillor Julinho Lopes, of the Progressistas party; the old rule, it was said, no longer matched common sense and had lost its force. The handwritten original is still kept in the town's public archive.

/SOURCE
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