Fruits and Vegetables Processing Industry in 2024

Fruits and Vegetables are great sources of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. They are beneficial for human consumption because of their health benefits. The availability of fruits and vegetables is seasonal but their demand is round the year. That’s why the processing of fruits and vegetables comes into the picture. This blog will help you understand how the life of fruits and vegetables is extended for availability throughout the year.

Fruits and Vegetables Processing

Who wouldn’t like their favorite fruits and vegetables to be available throughout the year? But certain fruits and vegetables are available only in a few seasons. For example, Mango is available only in the summer season whereas, tomatoes are mostly available throughout the year.

In order to make these seasonal fruits available throughout the year, the processing of fruits and vegetables comes into the picture. Fruit processing is the process of converting fruits into Juice, Pulp, Puree, Jams, Juices, Jellies, Beverage, etc. Processing of vegetables is attained by blanching, dehydrating, canning, freezing, fermenting, pickling, and irradiating them to retain their freshness and nutritional value and avoid microbial damage.

Methods of Processing Fruits and Vegetables

The processing of fruits and vegetables goes through various processing techniques that help retain freshness and provide food items with a longer shelf-life.

There are several methods of processing fruits and vegetables:

Fruit and Vegetable Dehydration Process

Dehydration is one of the oldest processing methods known to humankind. Drying or dehydration is the removal of the majority of water contained in the fruit or vegetable and is the primary stage in the production of dehydrated fruits and vegetables.

Traditional dehydration processes include sun drying and artificially dehydrating fruits and vegetables. The dehydration process in fruits and vegetables extends their shelf life and transforms their flavor and texture. This also makes them lightweight and easy to store. Dehydrating food with a dehydrator or freeze dryer is an easy and efficient form of food preservation.

High-Pressure Processing of Fruits and Vegetables

High Pressure Processing of fruits and vegetables, also known as high hydrostatic pressure processing, is a method used for processing F&V products without using added heat. HPP is a nonthermal technology used to kill harmful microorganisms like salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria monocytogenes. The high pressure processing equipment destroys the bacteria by damaging the cell components.

The characteristics of fruits and vegetables like color, texture, and flavor get affected by the conventional heating treatment. To prevent this, processors have started using the HPP technology as high pressure processing does not alter the color, texture, flavor, or nutritional content of fruits and vegetables.

Ultra-heat treatment Processing of Fruits and Vegetables

Ultra-heat treatment processing involves pumping a commercially sterile product through a heat exchanger. When the fruits and vegetables are given UHT at a higher temperature for a shorter time, it is seen that the end product is of high quality. To ensure that the product has a longer shelf life at ambient temperatures, the sterile product is packed into pre-sterilized containers in a sterile environment with an airtight seal. The shelf life of UHT-processed products can go up to 6 to 12 months without refrigeration.

Pasteurization Processing of Fruits

Pasteurization of fruits and vegetables is a process of heating the food items to 80°C and then quickly cooling them down to kill all the pathogenic microorganisms. This process kills maximum pathogens and prevents the remaining ones from multiplying. By doing so, the fruits and vegetables become safe to consume. The use of pasteurizer in fruits and vegetables is useful for all kinds of F&V products.

Canning of Fruits and Vegetables

Canning is a hermetical process of sealing/preserving food products in containers (tin can or glass) and sterilizing them by heat. Canning when done with the pressure cooker method, produces heat that kills the bacteria which causes food spoilage. This also helps the flavor, texture, and color of the product from getting affected. Introducing canning equipment could be an added cost but the end result produced is of higher quality.

Bulk Aseptic Processing for Puree/Pulp

Aseptic processing is the treatment for pumpable low-acid foods created for shelf-stable life. The Aseptic processing process bifurcates into two parts: sterilizing the product and packaging the sterilized product. The Aseptic processing for Puree/Pulp takes place in controlled environmental conditions that are free from any microbial contamination and then gets packaged.

The Aseptic puree/pulp is processed and filled in Bag-In-Box/ Bag-In-Drum in a sterile environment for an extended shelf life without added preservatives. Feeding and sorting fruits, separating pulp, thermal and enzymatic treatments, and refining are all part of the process. Bulk processing of aseptic puree/pulp is possible for up to 55 gall: 220 kg and upto 300 gall: 1000 kg. It is also suitable for single-fruit processing and multi-fruit processing lines.

Multi Fruit Processing Line

India is the largest producer of fruits and vegetables globally and the F&V plants in India normally range from 1,000 Kg per hour to 20,000 Kg per hour. On a global basis, a single fruit processing line goes up to 60,000 Kg per hour.

A single fruit processing line produces only one kind of seasonal fruit which could result in the entire line staying dormant after the season. By converting a single-fruit processing line into a multi-fruit processing line, the processing lines will keep processing throughout the year resulting in maximized profits. A multi-fruit processing line can process any suitable seasonal fruit for that line, for instance, a Mango processing line can also process Guava, Papaya, Tomato, Sapota & few other fruits.

Fruit processing lines contain four variants; tropical, citrus, candies jams, and marmalades. The vegetable processing line has four variants; tomato, potato, leafy veggies, and fresh-cut salads.

With fruit processing lines available processors can easily convert a fruit into puree, nectar, cloudy and clear juice, diced fruits, dehydrated and coated sugar candies, and whole fruit jams. The vegetable processing lines can convert tomatoes into juice, paste, ketchup, sauce, diced, and peeled. The vegetable processing line also converts leafy veggies into portions without losing any of its nutritional components.

Fruit and Vegetable Processing Equipment

Fruit Processing Equipment Manufacturers state that fruit processing lines include

Setting up a Fruits and Vegetables Processing Plant is no more a tedious task.
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Minimal Processing of Fruits and Vegetables

Minimal Processing of Fruits and Vegetables, aka, Light Processing is a technique where the fruits and vegetables are harvested, washed, blanched, peeled, cut, and stored in air-tight containers. Usually, the shelf-life of minimally processed food items is not more than 4 to 7 days, they are highly perishable as compared to processed fruits and vegetables. Minimal processing is when consumers demand food high in nutritional value, fresh, and low on added preservatives.