What is post harvest technology

Dr. Majid Javanmard (Ph.D)

Food Hygiene & Quality Control

Horticulture Production: Global Trends

The world population would top eight billion by the year 2030(FAO)

FAO estimated that the world production of fruits and vegetables over a threeyear period was 489 million tons for vegetables and 448 million tons for fruits.

This trend in production is expected to increase at a rate of 3.2 percent per

year for vegetables and 1.6 percent per year for fruits.

Asia is the leading producer of vegetables with a 61 percent total volume

output and a yearly growth of 51 percent.

the U.S. continues to lead in the export of fresh fruits and vegetables
worldwide with orange, grapes, and tomatoes.

Brazil dominates the international trade of frozen orange juice concentrate,

while Chile has become the major fresh fruit exporter with a production
volume of 45 percent.

The top six fruit producers, in declining order of importance, are China, India,
Brazil, USA, Italy, and Mexico. China, India, and Brazil account for almost 30
percent of the world's fruit supply

TRADITIONAL CONSUMPTION

Fruit and vegetable consumption per capita showed an increase of 0.38

percent for fresh fruits and 0.92 percent for vegetables per capita from 1986 to
1995.

The highest consumption of fresh fruits was registered in China (6.4%), as the
apparent per capita consumption of vegetables in China went from 68.7 kg per
capita in 1986 to 146 kg in 1995 (53.8% growth rate), while African and Near
East Asian countries showed a decrease in fresh fruit consumption.

The lowest consumption of vegetables per capita was registered in SubSaharan Africa.

post harvest

In agriculture, postharvest handling is the stage of crop

production immediately following harvest, including cooling,
cleaning, sorting and packing.

The instant a crop is removed from the ground, or separated

from its parent plant, it begins to deteriorate. Postharvest
treatment largely determines final quality, whether a crop is
sold for fresh consumption, or used as an ingredient in a
processed food product.

The most important goals of post-harvest handling are

keeping the product cool, to avoid moisture loss and slow
down undesirable chemical changes, and avoiding physical
damage such as bruising, to delay spoilage.

Sanitation is also an important factor, to reduce the

possibility of pathogens that could be carried by fresh
produce, for example, as residue from contaminated washing
water.

After the field, post-harvest processing is usually

continued in a packing house. This can be a simple
shed, providing shade and running water, or a largescale, sophisticated, mechanized facility, with
conveyor belts, automated sorting and packing
stations, walk-in coolers and the like. In
mechanized harvesting, processing may also begin
as part of the actual harvest process, with initial
cleaning and sorting performed by the harvesting
machinery.

Initial post-harvest storage conditions are critical

to maintaining quality. Each crop has an optimum
range for storage temperature and humidity. Also,
certain crops cannot be effectively stored together,
as unwanted chemical interactions can result.
Various methods of high-speed cooling, and
sophisticated refrigerated and atmospherecontrolled environments, are employed to prolong
freshness, particularly in large-scale operations.

Regardless of the scale of harvest, from

domestic garden to industrialized farm,
the basic principles of post-harvest
handling for most crops are the same:
handle with care to avoid damage
(cutting, crushing, bruising), cool
immediately and maintain in cool
conditions, and cull (remove damaged
items).

Postharvest Shelf Life

Once harvested, vegetable and fruit are subject

to the active process of senescence. Numerous
biochemical processes continuously change the
original composition of the crop until it becomes
unmarketable. The period during which
consumption is considered acceptable is defined
as the time of "postharvest shelf life".

Postharvest shelf life is typically determined by

objective methods that determine the overall
appearance, taste, flavor, and texture of the
commodity. These methods usually include a
combination of sensorial, biochemical,
mechanical, and colorimetric (optical)
measurements.

A recent study attempted (and failed) to discover

a biochemical marker and fingerprint methods as
indices for freshness

Postharvest Physiology

Postharvest physiology is the scientific study of the

physiology of living plant tissues after they have denied
further nutrition by picking. It has direct applications to
postharvest handling in establishing the storage and
transport conditions that best prolong shelf life.

An example of the importance of the field to postharvest handling is the discovery that ripening of fruit
can be delayed, and thus their storage prolonged, by
preventing fruit tissue respiration. This insight allowed
scientists to bring to bear their knowledge of the
fundamental principles and mechanisms of respiration,
leading to post-harvest storage techniques such as cold
storage, gaseous storage, and waxy skin coatings.
Another well known example is the finding that ripening
may be brought on by treatment with ethylene.

Post-harvest technology involves all

treatments or processes that occur from
time of harvesting until the foodstuff
reaches the final consumer.

Efficient techniques for harvesting,

conveying/transportation,
handling,
storage,
processing/preservation,
packaging, etc are components of the postharvest chain.

Harvesting is normally included as a

component of the although post-harvest
strictly means 'after harvest' because how
produce are harvested have a large bearing
on the post-harvest life of the produce.

Post harvest technology is inter-disciplinary

"Science and Technique" applied to agricultural
produce after harvest for its protection,
conservation, processing, packaging, distribution,
marketing, and utilization to meet the food and
nutritional requirements of the people in relation
to their needs.

Importance of Post-harvest technology lies in the

fact that it has capability to meet food
requirement of growing population by eliminating
avoidable losses making more nutritive food items
from low grade raw commodity by proper
processing and fortification, diverting portion of
food material being fed to cattle by way of
processing and fortifying low grade food and
organic wastes and by-products into nutritive
animal feed.

Post-harvest technology has potential to

create rural industries. In India, where 80
percent of people live in the villages and 70
percent depend on agriculture have
experienced that the process of
industrialization has shifted the food, feed
and fibre industries to urban areas.

The purpose of post harvest processing is

to maintain or enhance quality of the
products and make it readily marketable.

Post Harvest Industries

The post harvest industry includes the following main components

Harvesting and threshing

Drying and storage

Processing (conservation and / or transformation of the produce)

Utilization by consumer including home processing.

Other components of the system include.

Transportation and distribution.

Marketing.

Grading and quality control.

Pest control.

Packaging.

Communication among all concerned.

Information, demonstration and advisory systems.

Manufacture and supply of essential equipment and machinery.

Financial control.

Price stabilization

Management and integration of the total system.