Post Harvest Operations

References:
Principles of Food Preservation, G.P.
Kharel and Fumio Hashinaga
 Post Harvest Operations
All operations or activities after the harvest of crops
(fruits, vegetables) are post harvest operations. They
are
1. Raw Material Supply
2. Reception and Storage of Raw
Materials
3. Cleaning
4. Sorting and Grading
5. Peeling and Trimming
6. Size Reduction
7. Blanching
 1. Raw Material Supply
To get regular supplies at required time, quantity and
quality at low price.
1. Contract with growers or farmers.
2. Variety and delivery schedule is arranged to meet the
processor's requirements.
3. Grower and Processors make sowing plans, varieties
and raw material specification.
4. Processor may supply loan, fertilizer, pesticides,
harvesting and handling equipments and technical
advice.
5. Hygiene and quality of raw materials affect the
quality of finished product. It should be taken in
consideration from field to raw material reception.
2. Reception and Storage of Raw Materials
• All Lots should be inspected to check spoilage or insect
infestation at the time of delivery.
• Sampling and testing to determine compliance with
mutually agreed specification.
• Storage: short term, long term, time of storage: depends
upon types of F and Vegetables and targeted products to be.
• Design and construction of store : facilitate cleaning,
prevent infestation and contamination.
• Sweet peas and strawberries: spoil rapidly, processed as
they are received.
•Lettuce, asparagus, mushroom can be stored under
refrigeration for short periods. RH should be controlled to
prevent desiccation under refrigeration. Or enclosed in
impermeable wrapping.
 Reception and Storage……..
• Less fragile produce eg. Root vegetables, and fruits
like apples, pear can be stored in bulk. Storage
conditions and facilities depends on the type of
produce. Potatoes – in dark room to prevent budding.
Fruits – under CA/MA to delay maturation and unset
of senescence to lower temperature and alter air
composition.
• Depth of Veg in container: Fresh leafy vegetables eg,
spinach not over 1 m, to prevent accumulation of heat
due to respiration.
• To retard browning in perishable foods like berries-
(chilled water + ascorbic acid) at 15 0C.
 3. Cleaning
• Cleaning is a unit operation in which contaminants
are removed from the food and separated to keep the
surface of food in suitable condition for further
processing. The contaminants frequently
encountered are;
• Mineral- soil, sand, stone, grease, oil.
• Plant- leaves, twigs, foliage, stalks, weed seeds…
• Animal- hair, excreta, insect eggs, larvae….
• Chemical- fertilizers, spray residues ….
• Microbial – microorganisms and their products….
 Cleaning …
• Balance has to be made between cleanliness and its
cost. Cleaning reduces food wastage, reduces cost
of processing and increases safety and quality of
product.
• Cleaning equipments – proper design and
assembling. It should be flexible for the wide variety
of contaminants encountered in raw materials.
• Mechanical harvesting- increases extraneous
materials in raw materials. Chemical sprays, transit
damage, processing delays – increase infection and
spoilage.
 Cleaning Methods
• Wet cleaning: soaking, spraying, floatation,
filtration, settling.
• Dry cleaning: screening, brushing, aspiration,
abrasion (scratch), magnetic separation and other
physical methods.
• Method depends on – nature of product to be
cleaned and type of contaminants to be removed.
• More than one type of cleaning procedures are
applied to remove variety of contaminants found in
food.
 Wet cleaning
• More effective to remove soil
or dust from root crops,
pesticide residue from soft
fruits and vegetables.
• Less damage to the foods.
• While using warm cleaning
water - take Precautions. At
warm temp M/O growth and
spoilage ↑, careful control
over washing time subsequent
delay before processing.
• Large volume of effluent with
high conc. of dissolved and
suspended solids.
• Eg, spray washers, brush
washers, drum washers,
floatation tanks.
Dry cleaning
• Used for the products that are smaller,
have greater mechanical strength, and
possess lower M.C. eg, grains and
nuts.
• Cleaned surfaces are dry and they are
further dried during cleaning, shelf life
– longer.
• Uses smaller and cheaper equipments.
• Simple method, less chemical and
microbial deterioration in food.
• Effluent- concentrated and cheap to
dispose.
• Additional machines may be required
to reduce environmental pollution.
• Methods: screening, abrasion,
cleaning, magnetic cleaning,
 4. Sorting and Grading
Separation of one type from things of other types is
sorting. Grading is arranging things into different
grades or classes on the basis of some measureable
(physical) attributes. Basis of sorting and grading:
• Physical attributes eg, shape, size, color, texture,
maturity, mechanical damage.
• Biological attributes: insect, animal, fungal and
microbial damages.
Size and shape: potatoes, apple, orange, cucumber.
Sorting can be done manually and mechanically.
Grading examples: Tea, cheese, meat grading.
 Sorting and Grading….
• Grading needs skilled manpower/machine, so it is
more expensive than sorting.
• In some cases, single property of a food is taken as
index of quality. Small peas are recognized to be the
most tender and of high quality which can be
separated by size sorting. Density separation also can
be done by flotation in brines of varying densities.
• Mechanized grading- many advantages compared to
manual in terms of speed, reliability and labor costs.
• Our efforts should be continued to develop
mechanized grading to replace manual methods.
Working principle of mesh
 5. Peeling and Trimming
Operation in F and Veg. processing
• To remove unwanted or inedible materials and to
improve the appearance of the final product.
• Trimming is mainly performed manually due to the
variation in the shapes and sizes of the raw products
and to the types of the materials that must be
removed or trimmed away.
• Peeling methods: Manual, Mechanical, Chemical,
Thermal and Flame peeling.
 Mechanical Peeling
• Involves cutting or abrasion. Stationary blades are pressed
against the surface of rotating F and vegetables to remove the
skin.
• Blades may also rotate against stationary foods, eg; citrus
fruits in which skin is easily removed, little damage and less
wastage during peeling.
• Abrasive peeling is used for potatoes. Bowl whose interior
walls are covered with carborundum and the bottom agitates the
product in the bowl. Food is fed into the bowl with rotating
bottom. As the product rotates the abrasive surface removes the
skin. Benefits: Low energy, good appearance.
• Limitations: For irregular surfaced products needs hand
finishing. Higher product loss (up to 25%) than flash steam
peeling (up to 18%), Large volume of waste which is expensive
to dispose of.
 Peeler and Corer for Citrus

Functions: OP30 is an automatic machine for the peeling and coring

of oranges and grapefruit of different varieties. Furthermore the same
construction frame enables the processing of kiwis and mango, with
just some very simple changes in the machine settings. Output rated at
30 fruits per minute, it peels and, if necessary, cores oranges and
grapefruits, with the complete albedo removal. The operator’s task is
only to load the fruits. The peeling knife performs a very exclusive
operation being able to adjust itself to the difference of the peel
thickness.
Rotato Express
Peeler for fruit
& vegetable:
automatic fruit
peeler esp.
apple, potato
 Chemical Peeling
Lye peeling: Short period immersion of cleaned produce on a hot
(80-100)0C caustic soda (NaOH) solution called lye peeling. It
softens the skin and latter rinsed by cold water to remove skin and
alkali. After immersion, the peel can be easily removed by hand or
brush or with high pressure water sprays. The traces of alkali is
preferably removed by dipping the treated produce in a very weak
acid or citric acid solution.
• Caustic strength 1-10%, Temperature (80-100)0C, Time of
immersion 0.5- 3 minutes. Depends upon type of produce and stage
of maturity. Applicable F and Veg: eg, peaches, apricots, sweet
potatoes, potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, orange, tangerine
segments, etc.
•This method is quick, reduced wastage and cost of peeling. It is
potentially very polluting w.r.t. the effluent and requires considerable
quantities of water. SS equipments should be used for lye-peeling.
 Thermal Peeling
• This is more common method to processors who have
large quantities of steam as canneries. The Steam or
very hot water thermally shocks the superficial layers
of the products to be peeled.
• Immediate and rapid cooling, thin external portions
are removed by frictions and/or by water jets. When
carried out under vacuum, a suction effort is applied to
the superficial layers by the lowering of the temperature
due to the action of the vacuum.
• Foods (root crops, potatoes and peaches) are fed in
batches into a pressure vessels which is rotated at 4-6
rpm.
 Thermal Peeling….
• High pressure steam (1500 Kpa) is introduced and all
food surfaces are exposed to the steam by rotation of the
vessel for a predetermined time, which differs according
to the type of food.
• High temperature causes rapid heating of the surface
layer within 15-30s but the low thermal conductivity of
the product prevents further heat penetration, and product
is not cooked. Texture and color are therefore preserved.
• Pressure is instantly released which causes the surface
of food flashes off. Water sprays remove the peels.
• Benefits: lower water consumption, minimum product
losses, good appearance of the peeled surface, high
throughput up to 4500 Kg/hr., production of a more easily
disposable concentrated waste.
 Flame peeling
• Used generally for chestnuts or onions.
• The peeler consists of a conveyer belt that
carries and rotates the food through a furnace
heated to higher than 10000C.
• The outer paper shell and root hairs are burned
off and the charred skin is removed by high
pressure water sprays.
• The average product loss is about 10%.
 6. Size Reduction
Objectives:
• To obtain particles that can be easily and effectively
be packed into the containers for canning;
• To produce particles that have a more or less regular
size and shape to facilitate the efficiency and
uniformity of thermal process; and
• To present a final product that will be effective to
the consumer and can be consumed with little prior
preparation.
 Size Reduction
Different Forms of Cutting:
• Whole the appearance of whole: plums, prunes, cherries.
• Halves: Peaches, apricots, pear,…
• Quarters: Approx. 4 equal parts.
• Sections: obtained by dividing fruit into more than 4
parts.
• Slices: smaller than sections.
• Pieces: uniform sized and shaped cubes, broken slices
• Crushed or ground: Mechanically crushed or ground to
prepare sauces and purees.
 7. Blanching
• Heat treatment of foods for a short period prior to canning,
freezing and dehydration followed by cooling is called blanching. It
is generally applied to F and vegetables and primarily carried out to
inactivate enzymes. Unblanched frozen/dried foods: undergo
changes in color, flavor, texture and nutritive value due to continues
enzyme activity.
• Plant Enzymes: Lipoxygenase, polyphenoloxidase,
polygalacturonase, chlorophyllase- cause the loss of nutrients,
flavor and texture.
• Peroxidase and catalase – most heat resistant and widely
distributed enzymes. Although they are not implicated as a cause of
deterioration during storage. Their activity is used to evaluate the
effectiveness of blanching. If these 2 enzymes are inactivated, other
significant enzymes are inactivated = Adequacy of blanching =
Effectiveness of Blanching. Peroxidase is the most heat resistant.
Factors are affecting blanching time
• The type of fruit or vegetable.
• The size of the pieces of food.
• The blanching temperature and
• The method of heating
Advantages
• To inhibit enzymatic action
• To expel gases
• To reduce microbial load and contamination
• To soften or modify tissue texture
• To set plant pigments: green vegetable, broccoli ...
• To adjust moisture level
Disadvantages
• Losses of water soluble nutrients
• Undesirable color changes
 Methods of Blanching
• Prepared raw food material is immersed in hot water
or exposed to live steam. Water temperature and/or
steam pressure must be well controlled.
• Blanching operation varies according to the maturity
and type of vegetable (Fruits) used.
Methods:
1. Immersion blanching,
2. steam blanching and
3. microwave blanching.
In practice, immersion blanching and steam
blanching are generally used. Microwave blanching is
less frequently used.
 Immersion Blanching
• Prepared raw food material is immersed in hot water
(70-100)0C. After completion, water is pumped out.
Undesirable oxidation can be easily controlled.
• It leads to high loss of soluble nutrients. Hard water
toughens tissues and destroys the natural texture of
foods.
• Individual Quick Blanching (IQB) reduces energy
consumption and minimizes cost of production. It
comprises of 3 sections- preheating stage, blanching
stage, cooling stage.
• The conventional hot water blancher is cheaper and
more energy-efficient than steam blancher. However,
there are large losses of water soluble nutrients as
compared to the steam blanching.
Basket Type Food Blanching Machine
Basket type food blanching machine is the ideal equipment mainly
used for the blanching and sterilizing of easily breakable products
such as asparagus, mushroom and fruit slices, an indispensable
blanching equipment before quick-freezing and dehydration in pre-
treatment line.
Features
1. Adopt special basket type design (easy to take out), making the
operation more convenient.
2. Made of stainless steel which makes cleaning easier.
3. Adjustable blanching time, automatically controlled water
temperature and double insulation material.
4. Safe and reliable operation, high capacity and energy saving.
5. Enzyme inhibitory, color protection, timely dehydration and
cooling, composing a complete and coherent process.
Application
1. This food blanching machine is widely used for blanching and
color fixing of fruits and vegetables like asparagus, carrots,
mushrooms, fruit pieces and fragile products.
2. The blanching machine is widely used for pretreatment of
peeling chicken feet and other cooked food.
3. This basket type blanching machine is also widely used for
further processing like the shape processing of meat balls and
fish balls.
Operating Instructions
1. Connect 380v/50Hz power supply.
2. Set the water temperature to match with the required temperature
of food that prepared for processing.
3. Inject water to the equipment till it fills 50% of the total volume.
Turn on the power switch, and put the food into the charging basket
after the water is heated to the desired temperature. Then our whole
blanching process begins.
 Chicken feet Basket type Food Blanching M/C

Fruit pieces Mushrooms

 Steam Blanching
• It utilizes saturated steam at atmospheric or at low
pressure (150kN/m2). Food is conveyed through the
steam chamber on a mesh belt or by means of helical
screw, the residence time is controlled by the
conveyer speed. The time temperature combination
required to ensure enzyme inactivation at the center of
the bed – results in overheating at the edges- losses in
texture and other sensory characteristics of food.
• IQB- involves blanching in 2 stages- overcomes
problem
• Lower blanching losses.
 Microwave blanching
• Microwaves are applied to fruits and vegetables
packaged in film bags. Center of food is first affected
and uniform heating takes place.
• It is not yet used commercially on large scale due to
its high cost.