Exposure to commercially important fruits and vegetables, their regions, season, morphology, texture and composition. Production and processing scenario of fruits and vegetable: India and World. Scope of Fruit and Vegetable Preservation Industry in India - Present status, constraints & prospectus. Overview of principles and preservation methods of fruits and vegetables; Supply chain of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Maturity standards; Importance and methods of Maturity determinations; maturity indices for selected fruits and vegetables. Harvesting of important fruits and vegetables. Chemical changes during fruit ripening, its methods and regulations. Primary processing and pack house handling of fruits and vegetables - Peeling, slicing, cubing and cutting. Commodity pre-treatments – Pre-cooling, chemicals, wax coating, pre-packaging, cleaning and grading. Physiological post harvest diseases including chilling and freezing injury. Storage practices: Control atmospheric, hypotactic storage, cool store, Zero energy cool chamber, stores striation. Handling and packaging of fruits and vegetables.

Minimal processing of fruits and vegetables; Blanching operations and equipment. Canning: Definition, processing steps and equipment, cans and containers, quality assurance and defects in canned products. Indian Food Regulation and Quality assurance. Exposure to canned products in Indian market.

Freezing - General pre-processing, different freezing methods and equipments, problems associated with freezing; Dehydration – General pre-processing, different methods of drying including sun, tray, spray drying and low temperature, osmotic dehydration and other modern methods; Processing of dried and dehydrated fruits and vegetable products including wafers, soup powder, dried leafy vegetables, pickles, sauerkraut and papad. Indian Food Regulation and Quality assurance.

Processing of RTE fruit and vegetable products – Candies/Jelly/Jam/Marmalades, Squashes/cordials, Juice/RTS, pulp/purees/pastes/concentrates, Ketchup/sauces, Chutneys, Fruit Bar, Candied Fruits, Natural colors, Fruit and Vegetable Fibres, starch. Production of pectin and vinegar; Commercial processing technology for production of various value added processed products. Indian Food Regulation and Quality assurance.