The program that Training Of Farmer was conducting by Er. Bhavya E P and Arpana Anand of B.Voc Food Processing Technology. They have handled a Two-day Training program for farmers of Ernakulam and Thrissur Districts on 21st and 22nd August 2019. The training program was titled “Value addition and processing of Fruits and Vegetables” and it was conducted in association with Regional Agricultural Technology Training, Vytilla. Various value-added products from fruits and vegetables such as jam, jelly, ketchup, syrup, squash and fruit bars were demonstrated.
Sometimes the fruit’s are defined as the product of growth from an angiosperm, or flowering plant. At the purely botanical point of view, only fruit be the fleshy growth that arises from the ovary of a flower and not necessarily include any other structures. At the food processor’s point of view, the fruits are generally characterized as the edible product of a plant or tree that includes the seed and its envelope and can typically be described as juicy, sweet, and pulpy.
Fruits are high-moisture, the acidic food that is relatively easy to make the process and that offers a variety of flavor, aroma, color, and texture to the diet. They are usually low in calories but they are an excellent source of dietary fiber and essential vitamins. At the presence of cellulose, pectin, and various organic acids, fruits can also act as natural laxatives. Therefore fruits are a valuable part of the diet.
Vegetables are consist of a large group of plants consumed as food. The consumption of vegetables was increased significantly and consumers have become more health-conscious. Owing to the perishable nature of the fresh produce, international trade in vegetables is mainly confined to the processed forms.
Vegetables can be classified by edible parts into the root (potatoes and carrots), stem (asparagus and celery), leaf (lettuce and spinach), immature flower bud (broccoli and brussels sprouts), and fruit (tomatoes and cucumbers).In the program training of farmer class of vegetables, there are differences in between the structure, size, shape, and rigidity of the individual cells. The shelf life of fresh market and processing requirements are also very different. Vegetable cells, like plant cells, have rigid cell walls and are glued together by various polysaccharides such as cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin.
Once vegetables are harvested from the fields, the cells, now deprived of nutrient supplies normally obtained from soils and the air, go into senescence, or aging. The most noticeable structural change in senescent vegetables are softening, or loss of texture. Softening is caused by natural enzymatic reactions that degrade the plant cell walls. A large group of enzymes is involved in the senescence stage, including cellulase, pectinase, hemicellulase, proteinase, and others. After these enzymes break open the cells, chemical oxidation reactions take place and the vegetables develop off-flavors and loss of nutritional value.
Broken cells are also much more easily subject to microbial attacks, which quickly lead to spoilage. In addition, even though the vegetables may be packaged, the plant cells will continue to respire or break down carbohydrates for energy needs. Respiration leads to the loss of quality so that eventually the products are unsuitable for human consumption.
Now you can refer my previous post, Two Day Training Program, And Field Visit