Preservation of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are protective foods, much needed for nutritional balance in human diet. India produces many varieties of these perishables, considerable quantities of which go to waste and present numerous problems in transporting them to distant consuming centres. There are instances where hill fruits never reach plain markets; and even if they do, prices become exhorbitant due to heavy spoilage during transportation. The heavy spoilage can be attributed to improper handling, inadequate storage and transport facilities. By controlling spoilage of these perishables, the food resources of our country can be augmented and the fruits and vegetables can be made available at cheaper rates to millions of our countrymen for improving their nutritional status. Most of the fruits and vegetables are very cheap at the producing centres during season and become scarce out of season. If their storage life is increased, they could be made available at distant consuming centres for a longer span of time. This can be achieved by various treatments suitable for different perishables, thereby increasing their storage life, reducing spoilage thus facilitating transportation and marketing. The research work carried out at the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, for the last eleven years has resulted in the standardization of certain methods of preservation to achieve the above objectives. An outline of some of the methods has been presented earlierl. In this paper an attempt has been made to discuss the use of various methods of preservation to reduce spoilage and tide over glut.