Value Addition of Fruits: An Effective Process to Combat Post-harvest Losses
Shuvadeep Halder *
Department of Horticulture and Food Science, School of Agriculture and Allied Sciences, The Neotia University, Diamond Harbour, S 24 Pargana, 743368, India.
Boris Huirem
Department of Horticulture and Food Science, School of Agriculture and Allied Sciences, The Neotia University, Diamond Harbour, S 24 Pargana, 743368, India.
Sujata Karmakar
Department of Horticulture and Food Science, School of Agriculture and Allied Sciences, The Neotia University, Diamond Harbour, S 24 Pargana, 743368, India.
Abid Hayat
Department of Horticulture, School of Agriculture, Seacom Skills University, Kendradangal, Birbhum, 731236, India.
Urjashi Bhattacharya
Department of Agronomy, School of Agriculture and Allied Sciences, The Neotia University, Diamond Harbour, S 24 Pargana, 743368, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Bruising, breaking, impact wounding, cutting, and other forms of injury are the common causes of deterioration and rotting losses of freshly harvested fruit crops due to poor harvesting, handling, storage, transportation, and marketing practices. For combating the huge losses, proper post-harvest management and value addition are considered an effective solution. Therefore, it is of utmost necessity to enlighten farm workers, producers, managers of trade, and exporters on the scope of losses being experienced and their financial drawbacks to improve the issue and enhance their income. This study aims to encompass different value-added food products like Ready to serve drinks, fruit bars, jam, jelly, marmalade, squash, pickles, candy, fruit powders, etc., that can be prepared easily from different fruits, especially the underutilized fruits when they are available in bulk during their harvesting season. This will reduce post-harvest losses and make them available for consumption in the off-season.
Keywords: Fruits, perishable, deterioration, value-addition