Category: Post Harvest Technology

Aug 20

Introduction to Tea: cultivation, composition and classification

Tea is the most popular and important beverage in the world. In China tea is a beverage known about for 3000 years. However, current distribution pattern of tea type originated in the area somewhere near ‘Irrawaddy basin’ from where it dispersed to South- East China, Indonesia and India. Tea grows at latitude  27° South (Argentina) to 42.43° North (Georgia) and from sea level up to altitude of 2500 m. The soil in which tea grow are widely alluvial (in Assam, India), podzols ( in USSR), volcanic ash ( in Japan), andosole (in Indonesia), red yellow podzols (in Taiwan), red soil ( in China) and sedimentary ( in Darjeeling, India). Read more

Aug 19

Post Harvest of Tomatoes

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) was originated in South America. The improved variety of the wild fruit are grown throughout the world. Its high vitamin content and multiple uses make the tomato an important vegetable. Tomatoes are highly perishable and cannot be stored at low temperature and requires special care in handling, transportation and marketing.

 

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Jul 25

Physiochemical changes during ripening of fruits and vegetables

A fruit can be said to be physiologically mature when it has reached its last slow stage of growth and has developed the ability to ripe normally after harvest. It may be commercially mature in an earlier stage when sufficient desirable characteristic have been developed to make it edible. Commercial maturity is the time of harvest related to end used of market requirement. It may be any stage between development and senescence (quality degradation of ripen fruit). Physiological maturity is particular stage of plant. It is the maximum developed stage of fruits and vegetables.
During the development of growth period of fruit, there are many chemical and physical changes taking place in them. Read more

Jun 29

Control of ripening of fruits and vegetables

Ripening process need to be controlled during handling and storage of fruits and vegetables. Ripening process need to be hastened when there is high demand in the market and ripening process need to be controlled or delayed when there is no demand in the market. Precooling, Changes in atmospheric composition, temperature manipulation, hypobaric storage and irradiation are common practices in controlling the ripening process.

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Jun 28

Climacteric fruits and Ethylene

Climacteric fruit normally ripe after harvest, have higher ethylene production rate response with applied ethylene and result faster and more uniform ripening. Example; mango, apricot, banana, kiwi fruit, avocado, tomato etc. Therefore, climacteric fruits are commercially harvested at their maturity stage before onset of ripening to prevent damage and injury during handling and storage. In other hand, non-climacteric fruits do not ripe if they are harvested before they are ripen. Read more

Jun 27

Fruits and Vegetables : Introduction

A fruit is a seed bearing part of plant and is edible when ripen and fleshy. Many vegetables may be considered fruit in the true botanical sense. Botanically, fruits are those portion of plant which house seeds. Therefore, items such as tomatoes, cucumber, peppers etc. would be classified as fruit on this basis. However, important distinction between fruit and vegetable lies on usage basis. Those items that are generally eaten with main course of meal are considered vegetables. Those that are commonly eaten as deserts are considered fruits. Vegetables are derived from different parts of the plants. Read more