Post Harvest Management of Fruits and Vegetables

Post-harvest technologies constitute an inter-disciplinary science and techniques applied to agricultural commodities after harvest for the purpose of preservation, conservation, quality control, processing, packaging, storage, distribution, marketing and utilization to meet the food and nutritional requirements of consumers in relation to their needs. Again, fruits and vegetables are highly perishable commodities and the ambient high temperature obtained in the tropical country like ours makes them more susceptible for rapid development of senescence, decay and rotting. Both respiratory and transpiratory rates are proportional to temperature, increases and so that the produce quickly dries, wilts and spoils unless properly preserved. In this course, the various changes that takes place in the fruit or vegetable after harvesting as well as the maturity indices for harvesting a particular crop will be discussed. The students will also learn about post harvest handling of the crops so as to enhance the shelf life of the crops. The course will also discuss on the various principles involved in preservation of fruits and vegetables along with the various techniques used in the preservation of fruits and vegetables.

COURSE LAYOUT Week 1:

1. Importance and recent advances of post harvest technology in horticultural crops
2. Scope of preservation in India
3. Maturity and ripening process
4. Factors affecting ripening

Week 2:

1. Pre harvest factors affecting quality on post harvest shelf life of fruits and vegetables
2. Factors responsible for deterioration of harvested fruits and vegetables
3. Factors affecting growth of microorganisms and the control measures
4. Maturity indices of fruits and vegetables, Harvesting and post harvest handling of Vegetables
5. Maturity indices of fruits and vegetables, Harvesting and post harvest handling of Fruit

Week 3:

1. Pre-cooling and pre-storage treatments
2. Methods of storage and artificial ripening of fruits and vegetables
3. Packaging: Methods of Packaging, packaging materials and packaging technology for export
4. Food Containers

Week 4:

1. Site selection and unit layout for fruit and vegetable processing plant
2. Layout of post -harvest processing unit and hygienic conditions of the unit
3. Principles of preservation, Food Preservation by Fermentation

Week 5:

1. Canning and bottling
2. Drying and dehydration
3. Chemical Preservation of Foods
4. Cold Preservation and Processing
5. Heat Preservation and Processing

Week 6:

1. Ultraviolet and Ionization radiation
2. Enzymes in food industry
3. Food spoilage

  Week 7:

1. Preparation of processed products of fruits and vegetables-I
2. Preparation of processed products of fruits and vegetables-II (Fruit Beverages)

  Week 8:

1. Alcoholic fruit beverages
2. Spoilage of canned products

Week 9:

1. Tomato processing
2. Valuable products from fruits and vegetables waste
3. Quality control in food processing industry
4. Preservatives, colours permitted and prohibited in India

Week 10:

1. Judging of maturity indices of some important fruits and vegetables
2. Sauces and chutneys
3. Ketchup (tomato)

  Week 11:

1. Squashes (lemon squash, orange squash, pineapple squash)
2. Syrups (rose syrup and almond syrup)

Week 12:

1. Jams (apple jam and mixed fruit jam)
2. Pickles (green chilli, lemon, mixed vegetable)
3. Preserve (carrot)