Abstract

Value addition and Optimum Utilization of by- products of Fruits and Vegetables

Poonam Aggarwal Sachdev, Senior Vegetable Technologist, Punjab Agricultural University

India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world. In 2010-11, fruit production stood at 82.25million tonnes and vegetables production at 163.2 million tonnes. About 30-40 per cent of the fruit and vegetables production worth Rs 80,000 crore is going waste annually in the country due to lack of proper cold chain storage infrastructure Punjab produces around 15 lakh tons of fruits with Kinnow being the largest produce of the State and 36.45 lakh tons of vegetables. In India only 2.2% fruits and vegetable produced are processed against 65% in US, 70% in Brazil, 78% in Philippines, 80% in South Africa and 83% in Malaysia. The value addition is only 7% in India as against 23% in China and 188% in UK. In juice and beverage industry, the amount of residues such as peel, pomace, seeds and pulp wasted during processing is usually 30- 50%. Lot of Nutrients and Phyto - nutrients such as vitamins C and B , antioxidants, carotenoids, flavonoids, fibre, folate, anthocyanins, polyphenols present in the juice residue also go waste . Disposal of this waste residue is another problem of the industry which is otherwise causing health hazards and environmental pollution. With increasing raw material costs, climate change risks, and pressure from investors, employees and customers to increase sustainability of operations, focusing on waste management is critical to fruits and vegetable processing business.