Sustainable Livelihood Development through Fruits and Vegetables Processing in the Northeastern India
- Part 2 -

Ngangkham Joykumar Singh *

4th Pineapple Festival 2011 organised by Development of Andro Kendra at Thambalnu Market Yairipok on 3rd July 2011

Spoilage of fruits and vegetables: Fruits and vegetables are seasonal and highly perishable in nature. They begin to deteriorate shortly after harvest. Biochemical and microbial spoilage are likely to occur. Biochemical spoilage is caused by microorganisms like bacterial, yeast and moulds.

Microorganism may be present in the vegetative form, which can be easily destroyed or spore form, which are more resistant to heat, chemical or any other destructive agencies. So depending upon the kind and number of microorganism, the method of preservation differs. However, many of the microorganisms are also effective against enzymatic activity.

Methods available for preservation and processing of fruits and vegetables are i) classical methods of preservation, ii) refrigerated/low temperature preservation, iii) preservatives, iv) preservation by canning, v) preservation by drying and dehydration, vi) preservation by radiation and vii) preservation of semi-moist foods. These methods have gained worldwide acknowledgement for long year in the food industry.

Fruits and vegetables being high moisture fruits are extremely susceptible to deteriorate, especially under tropical conditions. It is estimated that about 25-30% of the fruits and vegetables produced in India annually worth of 20,000-24,000 crores is lost due to inadequate post harvest management. These losses result in poor return to the growers and increase the cost of raw material, which ultimately affects the consumer. Even if the wastages are reduced by 10% by using improved post harvest management techniques, there will be a net gain of at least Rs. 8000 crore annually.

Measures to improve fruits and vegetables processing sectors

Successful processing of fruits and vegetables needs

1. Identification of point of intervention in processing of fruits and vegetables,
2. Development of bench scale devices and optimization of process variables,
3. Identification of industries and their involvement right from start and
4. Development of pilot plant, equipments and their commercial production.

Following considerations should be taken care for the success of fruits and vegetable processing in the region.

1. Identification of various fruits and vegetables in the region and their major constraints for production and processing.
2. Existing process flow and material balance chart with optimum process parameter should be prepared.
3. The above flow process should modify to replace manual operations by machines or equipments. The machines should be designed and fabricated as to have 100% cleanable and confirming hygienic design standards.
4. Process automation should be employed wherever possible to ensure uniform quality product
5. Linkage between R & D organizations, equipment manufacturers, growers and food processors should be established.
6. For the marketing of the products, proper packaging system accompanied with cold chain should be maintained during their storage, transportation and distribution.
7. During production, HACCP programme and IS quality standards should be followed in order to capture the national and international markets.

Food quality and safety

Food quality and safety are of the major concern to every individual. Consumers expect their food to be safe, convenient to use, instant and minimally processed. The responsibility for ensuring that this expectation is consistently met rests with governments, industry and the consumers themselves.

Besides safety, quality attributes they look for high qualities like high nutritional qualities, functional qualities like high nutritional qualities, functional qualities and organoleptic qualities like fresh appearance, natural colour, texture and taste.

In food chain establishments, quality assurance and control is primarily controlled by the consumers. To meet the growing demands of consumers for safe and healthy foods, the criteria of quality is measured by various qualitative and quantitative standards.

The Indian food regulations comprise various food laws that have been enacted at different points of time and are under the ambit of various ministries. Many ministries deal with food laws resulting in multiple bodies, which set standards. The situation leads to a lot of confusion in the minds of consumers, traders, investors and manufacturers.

Some of the laws that apply to food and its operations are:

1. The prevention of food adulteration Act, 1954
2. The fruit products order, 1955
3. The meat food products order, 1973
4. The edible oil packaging(Regulation) order, 1998
5. The vegetable oil products (control)order, 1947
6. The solvent extract oil, de oiled meal and edible flour (control) order, 1967
7. The milk and milk products order, 1992

India is a country of continental size with a population of over 1000 million out of which 350 million live in urban areas. For the latter section, processed foods will become their main slay sooner or later. Global processed food business is around Rs.16000 billion while Indians contribution is Rs.1400 billion.

Food industries have termed as sun-rise industries and several efforts have been made in the last few years to give a big thrust to this sector. In this context, more training programme are required to be organized in the region by various Govt. funding agencies through different institutions like Central Agricultural University, Tezpur University, Assam Agricultural University located in the region.

The department of development of Northeastern Region, Govt. of India should take the sole initiative in order to provide adequate facilities at the doorsteps of the growers. It is expected that the training programmes will develop skilled manpower, make familiar the consumers and entrepreneurs about the food safety and quality aspects, food laws and regulations governing the manufacture, packaging and labeling of various fruits and vegetable products.

It is hoped that when people earn more profits inspite of selling raw fruits and vegetables will boost up and more people will be fascinated towards this profession.

Concluded ....

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* Ngangkham Joykumar Singh wrote this article for The Sangai Express .
The writer is Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Iroisemba, Imphal
This article was posted on November 27, 2011.

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