Scope of food processing 

The Food Processing Sector

Food processing adds value to the agricultural produce starting at the post harvest level. It includes even primary processing like grading, sorting, cutting, seeding, shelling packaging etc.

The sector comprises of the following major areas: 

Fruit & Vegetable

The major products processed out of fruits and vegetables include beverages, juices, concentrates, pulps, slices, frozen and dehydrated products, wine potato wafers or chips etc. 

Apple

Apple without skin, cooked, canned apples, dehydrated apples, frozen apples, canned apple juice, apple juice, apple sauce.

Banana

Banana Powder, Banana Flour, Banana Puree, Banana Chips, Banana Jam and Banana Jelly, Banana vinegar, Sweet coat banana.

Grape

Jam, Juice, Syrup, Squash, Wine and Raisins.

Guava

Pectin, Jam, Jelly, Pickle, Powder, Puree, Peru khand, Beverages, Ethanol Production, Wine and Animal Feed preparation.

Lychee

Lychee crush, juice, squash, pickles, canned and dried fruits.

Mango

Juice, squash, nectar, jam, pulp, puree, pickles, canned slices, mango leather (papad), starch from mango kernel.

  

Papaya

Papain, Jam, Marmalade, Tutti-frutti (candy), Pickle, Wafers (Papad), Chocolate, Canned papaya, Fridge dried papaya.

Pineapple

Canned Pineapple Juice, Pineapple Squash, Pineapple beverage, Canning Syrup from Pineapple Waste Juice, Preparation of Vinegar from Pineapple Wastes, Cattle Feed Ingredient, Pineapple Bran, Pineapple Silage, Pineapple Tops (Crowns), Waxes, Pineapple Proteases (Bromeliad), Pineapple Fibre.

Pomegranate

Pomegranate Juice, Jelly, Syrup, Squash, Nectar, Anar rub, Anar crush, Dried pomegranate (Anar Dana), Powder, Pomegranate wine.

Sapot

Chikku Juice, Squash, Syrup, Jam, Toffee, Candy, Dried Fruit Scrap and Powder, Milk Shake, Ice cream.

Watermelon

Juice.

Fruits and Vegetables Consumer Products

Fruit Toffees

Fruit toffee is made from pulp of various fruits along with certain food preservatives and ingredients. Small and cottage scale manufacture of fruit toffee provides self-employment in the area where the fruits widely available. Although fruit toffees are being made in the organised sector still there exists a vast potential for cottage scale production.

Fruit Bars

Fruit bar is a concentrated fruit product, which has a good shelf life. A variety of pulpy fruits like mango, banana, guava, papaya, apple etc. can be used in preparing fruit bars. Due to their good shelf life, availability in various flavors and texture fruit bars are becoming increasingly popular.

Fruit Jams and Jellies

Fruit jams and jellies are prepared by boiling the fruit pulp with sufficient quantity preservative like sugar to a moderately thick consistency. The popular varieties of jam include mixed fruit, pineapple, mango, strawberry, grape, apricot and among jellies, guava and apple. The jam is used as a bread spread and could be taken along with paranthan, chapatti and puri. Jams, jellies and marmalades contribute around 17% of the total processed fruit and vegetable products.

 Improved Murabba Making

Murabba comes under indigenous sweet preparations of the country. Murabba could be prepared from amla, mango, bael, myrobalan, carrot, apple also citrus peels are quite popular. The traditional method of preparing murabba requires a long processing time and does not ensure good keeping quality for the product often spoils due to miocrobial fermentation. The method has been improved to obtain murabba in a shorter period with good keeping quality, attractive translucent appearance and desirable texture.

Tutty Fruity

Fruits like apple, mango, amla, papaya, strawberry, raspberry, pear, cherry, etc are used in preparing preserves or candies. Raw papaya is largely used to make tutti-fruity used in bakery products, sweetmeats, ice creams, salads and pan.

The candied fruits and vegetables are quite popular food items and their consumption of is rapidly increasing.

Osmo-air dried Fruits

Osmo air-dried fruits are based on a novel approach towards dehydration. Slices of various fruits like ber, pineapple, jackfruit, mango, etc. are processed in two stages. In the first phase most of the water is removed using sugar syrup as an osmotic agent. In the second phase air drying is done where the moisture content is further reduced to about 15%. The osmo-air dehydrated product is near to the fresh fruit in terms of colour, flavour and texture. The osmo-air dehydrated product can be used in ready-to-eat type foods, ice cream, fruit salad, kheer, cakes and bakery products. Such osmo-air dried fruit based units can be set up in areas near fruit orchards to the benefit of people. The process is simple and involves operations like selection of fruits, cleaning, washing, peeling, curing and slicing and dicing. To remove water by osmosis the prepared fruit slices are steeped in sugar solution. The slices are then drained, dried in a hot air drier and finally packed in flexible pouches.

Grape Raisins

Dried grapes are used in various food preparations and are directly consumed. Grape growing area has the potential of manufacturing raisins. An effective and improved method to prepare raisins has been developed which can easily be adopted. This process consists of washing of grape, alkali treatment, sulphitation, drying in sun or in dehydraters.

Any grape variety with high sugar and low acid content can be used yielding a good quality product. No sophisticated equipment is needed and the unit can be installed in orchards generating rural employment.

Dry Apricots

Apricot is grown in the temperate regions. The dry fruit form of apricot is an important item of confection. The fully ripe fruits are harvested item of confection. The fully ripe fruits are harvested and placed in a wooden sulfuring chamber wherein yellow sulphur is burnt at the rate 4g per kg of fruit. Sulfured fruits are then dried in a solar drier for 5-7 days till the moisture content is about 17%. Finally the dry fruits are packed in polythene bags for storage and marketing.

Dehydrated Vegetables

Dehydration is one of the methods to preserve seasonal and perishable vegetable and make them available throughout the year in hygienic conditions at reasonable or low cost. Such dehydrated vegetables are easy to transport and cater to the needs of large catering establishments. The advantage of such dehydrated vegetables can be used in various preparations at any season of the year. Traditional sun drying is time consuming, less hygienic and climate dependent.

The process for controlled dehydration of vegetables consists of grading and sorting, washing, peeling and trimming, size reduction, blanching, chemical treatment, dehydration and packing in unit can be established.

Anardana

Anardana is pomegranate seed. The seed when dried yields anardana of commerce. The anardana is manually extracted of arils followed by sundrying. It is unhygienic, labour intensive and slow. The product cannot be stored for long or beyond monsoon season since spoilage occurs due to discolouration, moisture ingress and insect infestation.

The modern processing technique is hygienic and consists of pre-cleaning, mechanised extraction of arils, solar drying and packaging. The mechanised aril extractor works on ¼ HP motor and can process 60 kg fruit per hr as compared to productivity of 5 kg per hr in manual operation.