Vacuum Dried Fruits Manufacturer
Year 2013 : India's post-harvest fruit and vegetable losses are over Rs 2 lakh crore annually, owing to inadequate cold storage facilities and lack of proper food processing units, a study has said. Fruits and vegetables are highly perishable commodities and about 30 percent of them produced in the country are rendered unfit for consumption due to spoilage after harvesting, an Assocham study said.
Year 2022 : Agriculture is the primary source of employment for two-thirds of the Indian population. The horticulture production, including fruit and vegetable crops in India, was estimated at 326.6 million metric tons in FY2020 of this, around 40% of the total food products are wasted annually. Among the horticultural produce, fruits and vegetables have short shelf lives and contribute to 70% of the wasted food. This food wastage mainly happens in the pre and postharvest stages both stages of the supply chain due to poor facilities and infrastructure for storage and transportation facilities. In addition, because horticultural products must be transported over long distances and through a variety of climate zones, they are exposed to varying environmental conditions that impact their quality.
Orchard invention is a solution to these losses. It will help farmers to generate additional income by eliminating pre and post-harvest losses.
In 2015 a farmers son form Jalgaon came to me for Vacuum drying machine. Known as the “Banana City of India”, Jalgaon district in north Maharashtra contributes about half of Maharashtra's banana production and more than 16% of that of India. He told that for various reason the banana tree collapses though the bunch of bananas is intact, but these fruits are not marketable. We have no option but through these banana on the road. Hence, he was planning to vacuum fry these bananas. As developing new machine is my passion a decided to work on it and also it was opportunity full fill my wish do something farmers.
I worked on this vacuum frying machine about two years but abandoned this project as it was not economical, and process of frying is complicated.
Another person approached me and asked me to develop vacuum dryer. Three years back we started working on this project and to this date we have successfully vacuum dried most of the fruits, i.e., around 25 types, available in India.
Dehydrating is a best solution to preserve perishing fruits and vegetables. At present following methods are used to dehydrate fruits and vegetables to reduce losses. Below are the pros and cons of the dehydrating process.
- Microwave drying is highly expensive and not safe.
- Freeze drying is the only process which is very popular at present. Depending on the method you’re using, it takes 20 hours to a month to freeze-dry your food. Also, it depends on the type of food you’re freeze-drying. For example, foods such as corn, meat, and peas dry quickly, while watermelon and squash take longer. The thickness of the food slices will affect the freeze-drying time, too. If you have a freeze-dryer, it takes about 20 to 40 hours. This process ultimately consumes power continuously for this long time. In this process there is little change in colour, fruits are much crispier, and the loss of nutrients is low.
- Solar dryer does not require much electrical power, but this process also takes around 5-6 days to dry fruits or vegetables. Moreover, the dried fruit are chewy, and taste and colour are changed to a great extent due to the longer drying time.
- Sun drying does not require any electrical power at all but again it takes 2 to 6 days for drying, the process is not hygienic. Dried fruit are chewy, and taste and colour is changed to a great extent due to longer drying time.
