Abstract

The review mainly focused on ready-to-eat (RTE) fresh-cut fruits and vegetable (F&V) which are consumed raw or processed. In recent years, there has been growing evidence of consumption of minimally processed fruits and vegetable for the prevention of many chronic diseases. Some chemicals like chlorine, calcium chloride, etc., are used for sanitisation purpose in fruit and vegetable industry, but these chemicals form carcinogenic chlorinated compounds which have adverse human health impacts. Therefore, advanced alternative sanitisation techniques, processing methods and improved packaging materials may be implemented for ensuring safety and extending the shelf life of fresh-cut fruit and vegetable. Edible coating materials like methylcellulose, carrageenan and alginate are used for reduction of microbial load and preservation of fruit from the fruit and vegetable surface after harvesting. Some emerging alternative methods such as irradiation, high-pressure processing, power ultrasound, cold plasma and limitations of chemical methods have also been reported in this review for maintaining the quality and prevention of spoilage to a greater extent. The review also covers some post-harvest processing steps such as washing, sanitation, cutting and dipping treatments used for processing of fruits and vegetable. The information presented in this manuscript would be highly beneficial and effective for preservation, sensorial and nutritional quality of fresh-cut fruit and vegetable.

Highlights

  • Fresh produce is any fruit or vegetable or a combination of both in a raw state which has a major or minor physical alteration from its original form

  • Advanced alternative sanitisation techniques, processing methods and improved packaging materials may be implemented for ensuring safety and extending the shelf life of fresh-cut fruit and vegetable

  • It directly reacts with the microbial cell RNA and amino acids its treatment is very efficient against disease-causing microorganisms like Escherichia coli Legionella, Cryptosporidium, Giardia cysts and virus by avoiding the formation of protein (Francis and O' Beirne, 2005; Fu et al, 2007)

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Summary

Introduction

Fresh produce is any fruit or vegetable or a combination of both in a raw state which has a major or minor physical alteration from its original form These fruits and vegetable have been considered as a wholesome, convenient and ready to use products which offer high nutrition to the consumers. India is a front-runner in mango, papaya, banana, guava, onion, cabbage, cauliflower, okra and ginger It is suitable for cultivation of wide varieties of fruits and vegetable, i.e. more than 30 and 70 types of fruits and vegetable respectively were grown in the country. Techniques like effective packaging increase the storage life of fresh-cut fruits and vegetable by retaining high nutritional value, ensuring an excellent eating quality of food products. The main objectives of this paper are to present the important aspects, preservative techniques which can be adopted for enhancing the storage life and reducing the wastage of the fresh-cut fruits and vegetable products without or minimal loss in nutritional quality of the fresh produce

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