Handbook on Fruits, Vegetables & Food Processing with Canning & Preservation (3rd Edition)

Book excerpt: Natural foods such as fruits and vegetables are among the most important foods of mankind as they are not only nutritive but are also indispensable of the maintenance of the health. India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world. Fertile soils, a dry climate, clean water and abundant sunlight help the hard working farmers to produce a bountiful harvest. Although there are many similarities between fruits and vegetables, there is one important difference that affects the way that these two types of crop are processed like fruits are more acidic than vegetables. Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption. Food processing typically takes clean, harvested crops or butchered animal products and uses these to produce attractive, marketable and often long shelf-life food products. Canning is a method of preserving food in which the food is processed and sealed in an airtight container. Food preservation is the process of treating and handling food to stop or greatly slow down spoilage (loss of quality, edibility or nutritive value) caused or accelerated by micro organisms. One of the oldest methods of food preservation is by drying, which reduces water activity sufficiently to prevent or delay bacterial growth. Drying also reduces weight, making food more portable. Freezing is also one of the most commonly used processes commercially and domestically for preserving a very wide range of food including prepared food stuffs which would not have required freezing in their unprepared state. Fruits and vegetable processing in India is almost equally divided between the organized and unorganized sector, with the organized sector holding 48% of the share. The present book covers the processing techniques of various types of fruits, vegetables and other food products. This book also contains photographs of equipments and machineries used in fruits, vegetables and food processing along with canning and preservation. This book is an invaluable resource for new entrepreneurs, food technologists, industrialists etc.