Methods of Processing Fruits and Vegetables

a. Canning
b. Fermentation and pickling
c. Large Dice Cut

Canning

The term “canning” is a little misleading. If you’re canning at home, you’re probably using
mason jars or something very similar. This relatively simple method of preservation involves
sealing food in a sterile, airtight environment. Both cooked and raw food can be successfully
canned using heat to sterilize and seal the jar.
To can your fruits and vegetables at home, you’ll need a pressure canner, along with canning
jars, seals, rings, lids, a funnel and a large pot for blanching. The principle involves killing
bacteria inside the jar with heat. Steam pressure is applied to the airtight container that leaves a
sterile vacuum in which food can stay safe and relatively fresh for several months.

Pickling

Pickling fruits and vegetables creates an inhospitable environment for bacteria. Potentially
dangerous pathogens simply can’t survive the acidity of vinegar, which means food can be kept
safe and edible for years.

Pickling is one of the simpler methods of food preservation, but it drastically changes the flavor
of most fruits and vegetables. The process involves creating a pickling solution of white vinegar,
salt and sugar, which is brought to a boil in a pan. The fruits and vegetables are placed in an
airtight jar, and the solution is poured on top until all of the food is submerged. The jar is then
sealed and stored for several days – as many as seven, for particularly chunky summer
vegetables such as zucchini.

Fermenting

The fermentation process involves converting carbohydrates to alcohol or organic acids. To get
the process going, you need to introduce salt, whey or a dedicated starter culture to water –
creating the brine solution in which the food will ferment.
Fermenting summer fruits and vegetables is relatively easy, but it’s important to ensure that
they’re cut into small and even chunks or slices. The food is put into an airtight container, and
the brine is poured on top. It’s important to ensure that all of the food remains submerged in the
brine until the fermentation process has finished. If you’re fermenting fruit, the process should
take around 48 hours. However, because of their lower sugar content, vegetables tend to take a
little longer.

Freezing

Freezing your summer fruits and vegetables is the easiest and quickest way to ensure they last
throughout the winter. However, the process of freezing and thawing can damage softer fruits
like strawberries – changing their texture completely. It’s also worth remembering that freezing
doesn’t kill all bacteria; many become dormant until defrosted.

If you decide to freeze your fruits and vegetables, it’s usually best to freeze them first on a metal
tray. Once they’re completely hard, transfer them to sterile, airtight freezer bags. If you’re
freezing starchy vegetables such as potatoes, blanch them in iced water before placing them in
the freezer. And if you’re storing fruits that can turn brown, such as apples, treat them with
ascorbic acid first.

Oil Packing

The use of vegetable oils to preserve summer fruits and vegetables makes it harder for bacteria to
develop — but it also adds a completely different dimension to the flavor. Ideal for preserving
tomatoes, eggplants, herbs, onions and olives, oil packing creates anaerobic conditions (basically
no air) with the addition of acid, usually vinegar. Most people use airtight mason jars to preserve
fruits and vegetables these days, but sealable food bags can work just as well.

Salting

The hypertonic properties of salt make it very difficult for bacteria to survive. Organisms die or
become deactivated through dehydration, which means food can be stored for long periods in
ambient temperatures.

To salt your vegetables at home, place them in a large baking pan and submerge them in water.
Add salt to the water until you notice it beginning to deposit on your vegetables – this is an
indication that the saturation point has been reached. At this point, you should refrigerate the
 vegetables in the water for a week or so. Complete the process by draining the brine away and
covering your vegetables with more salt, and store in a cool dry place until dried.

Processing of Fruits and Vegetables

In previous blog post we wrote about storage of fresh fruits and vegetables. But fruits and
vegetables can be also stored in many other forms, such as canned, frozen, dried or juced.
Modern lifestyle and diet, which prompted the human to adequately storage a variety of fruits
and other plant organs, influenced on the development and implementation of the many methods
and procedures for preservation of fruits and vegetables. Technological procedures of processing
of fruit and vegetables can be classified into few processing methods:

 Traditional processing methods - drying, concentrating, heating (cooking, baking, frying)

cooling, use of additives - preservatives, acidification, fermentation

 Improved traditional methods of processing - the application of increased temperatures

(sterilization, pasteurization), the application of low temperature (cooling, freezing), aseptic
packaging, controlled atmosphere -CA, freeze-drying, microfiltration and membrane
processes, packaging (MA and vacuum)

 Procedures that are investigating - high voltage pulse techniques, photodynamic inactivation,
microwave processing - heating, high pressure treatment, ionizing radiation, heating of
electrical resistance effect and induction
Heat treatment and sterilization

One of the traditional methods of preserving process of fruits and vegetables is a thermal
treatment, which involves the use of heat, ie. increased temperatures. Heat treatment is carried
out by methods of sterilization, pasteurization and blanching, thus hermetically sealed packaging
is used (usually made of metal, glass or plastic). Fruits, vegetables and their products represent a
significant segment of the human diet, as they create the preconditions of proper nutrition. From
a global point of view fruits and vegetables are present in the human diet all over the world, but
it is also interesting that the relatively large producers of fruits and vegetables are developing
countries.

Fruit and vegetable products

It is a large number of products that can be produced from fruits and vegetables. In the table
below you can see the list of products.

Fruit products Vegetable products

frozen fruit frozen vegetables

jam vegetable juice

fruit jellies concentrated vegetable juice

pasteurized fruit pasteurized vegetables

fruit cheese sterilized vegetables

frozen pulp of the fruit frozen pulp of the fruit dried vegetables

pasteurised mash marinated vegetables

candied fruits biological canned vegetables

dried fruit vegetable sauce

fruit juice other vegetable products

fruit juice powder

fruit syrup

low-calorie products

compote
marmalade

Processing fruit and vegetable

GATE's Question-and-Answer Service offers individuals, groups and institutions technical

information and advice free of charge. In this column we publish questions and answers that may
be of interest to readers of gate magazine.

We would be most grateful if you could supply us with the names and addresses of the makers of
equipment to be used to study and set up small fruit and vegetable processing units.
We are developing projects aimed at processing tropical fruits and vegetables on a small scale,
and are in need of such information for costing purposes. - S.A.D.A.I.C. / Benin
Fruit and vegetable production is more often than not characterized by a seasonal surplus (over-
production) leading to a heavy drop in prices and losses on a large scale due to the deterioration
of great quantities of produce.
Converting the produce into a processed form, making them keep longer, is the prescribed
method of containing this problem.
From the technical viewpoint, there are numerous ways of processing fruits and vegetables the
main ones being:
Vegetables: drying, fermentation, preparation of sauces and condiments;
Fruits: drying, fermentation, making jam/jelly, compotes, syrups and juices.
However, as you are well aware, the type of processing method to be used depends on an number
of factors, such as: the nature of the raw materials, market demand with regard to the type and
quality of the finished product, etc .
Drying, for example, is a simple and fairly universal method of treating fruit and vegetables to
improve their keeping quality.
Diagram 1 represents the essential stages of treatment used in fruit and vegetables drying.
Diagram 1

Making syrups, juices, jams and compotes is a potentially lucrative approach to fruit processing.
The definitions and specifications of these finished products are as follows:
Fruit juices are obtained from ripe and unspoiled fresh fruit, by extraction (with heat or under
pressure).
"Pure fruit juices" are obtained from fresh fruit and contain no additives for colouring or
sweetening.
"Sweet juice" can have additional sugar up to a level of 100 g. per litre of original juice.
In 1992 GATE received 171 queries on food processing. Most queries (111) came from Africa.
The majority requested information on buying or manufacturing AT equipment (26%) and know
how on processing methods. The number of queries from Africa suggests that there is a great
backlog demand.
Jams are prepared from whole or segmented fruit cooked in a sugary syrup.
On the other hand, compotes are made from mashed fruit and cooked in syrup.
The procedure for making the three types of products mentioned above requires several stages,
the main ones of which are shown in diagram 2.
Diagram 2

These diagrams are designed to guide you through the operations and enable you to make the
correct choice of equipment, according to the nature of the raw material and the desired final
product.
Attached you will find a list of companies who make equipment suitable for processing fruit and
vegetables. The terms of delivery (price, payment, installation, etc.) can be discussed directly
with the suppliers.
However, for greater convenience and in order to ensure that the right quantities are obtained and
maintenance services provided, we would suggest that you avoid buying isolated components.
We feel that small locally-made complete or semi-finished artisan units would be a good buy.
GATE/Question-and-Answer Service
Diagram 3

Food Processing: GATE Documentation Service

The GATE Documentation Service has published another bibliography, this time on the topic of
food processing. The list includes over 800 publications stocked by the GATE Documentation
Service. Based on the well-known SATIS classification system, the bibliography is broken down
into the following fields: food production; food science; food technology and preparation; food
processing per product; packing, storage and transport of food and agricultural products.
All documents listed are kept by the GATE Documentation Service, where they can be accessed.
Also just published is the "GATE List of Small-Scale Food Processing Terms". Originally
produced as an in-house key-word register for GATE, it is a suitable tool for all libraries and
information services who wish to index their stock on the topic of food processing.
Should you be interested in receiving either or both publications or other related information,
free of charge, then please contact us at the following address: GTZ/GATE Dokumentation c/o
Dirk Franken Postfach 5180 DW5236 Eschborn Phone: + 49/(0)6196/79-4806