Value addition in vegetable crops: A review

Abstract

Vegetable is the herbaceous plant or parts of the plant or whole plant is used for cooking, raw consumption, table purpose and processing purpose. They are rich in nutrients like, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins. Mostly cultivated around the year throughout the country. India is second largest producer of vegetables in the world with annual estimated production of 187.47 million tonnes from an area of 10.43 million hectares. The term value addition indicates that for the same volume of primary product a high price is realized by means of processing, packing, upgrading the quality or other such methods. The aims of value addition in vegetables is to receive maximum profit, for easy post-harvest handling, increase sale of vegetables, increase demand of economic products prepared from vegetables, to fulfill the customer’s need for quality vegetables, to prevent wastage of harvested vegetables, to utilize unsold vegetables in market, to promote export of vegetables and their economic products.