Processing, Preservation and Product Development Techniques for Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables become glut in harvesting season due to high productivity and all cannot be consumed at that time. They cannot be stored because there is scarcity of storage facilities which results high wastage of their highly perishables nature. On the other hand there is scarcity of fruits and vegetables in off season. If they are available, the market prize is very high and people can afford it and mostly common people are deprived of consuming fruits and vegetables. It is very essential to create facilities and preventive measures to reduce wastage and make more availability of fruits and vegetables to consumers. Other care must be taken after harvesting to prevent initial losses, because losses start immediately after harvesting. To reduce the losses and to make availability of fresh fruits and vegetable during off season, the best mean is the processing and preservation by using simple techniques. There are many processing methods that can be used by small-scale handlers, including drying, fermenting, canning, freezing, preserving and juicing.