Postharvest Management and Processing Technology

The postharvest management and processing technology of cereals, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables are under development. The postharvest losses of cereals, pulses, oilseeds are 10-20 per cent but the losses of fruits and vegetables in India vary from 20-30 per cent of the production. If these losses are controlled by using postharvest management and processing technology, the supplies of fresh fruits and vegetables will be increased to the extent of their existing losses. This will help to increase the per capita availability of fruits and vegetables. One object of this book is to organize the scatted information and to deal with the recent development of postharvest management and processing technologies such as processes, operations, designs other aspects such as drying, parboiling, milling, by-products utilization and innovative product development from agricultural raw material. The processing technology, that increases the functionality without changing their fresh like properties has significant role in modern processing industry. This book addresses factors that are involved in maintaining the quality of cereals, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables after harvest. This book incorporates information on postharvest management, principles involved in preparation of various products as well as methodology involved in home scale as well as industrial processing of cereals, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables. General terminologies used in the food science and technology are also included in this book. This book has been mainly designed to serve as a text cum reference book for the students in the field of Food Science and Technology, postharvest technology, horticulture, nutrition and professionals in food industries.

Dr. U.D. Chavan obtained his B. Sc. and M. Sc. (Agri. in Biochemistry) degrees from Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth Rahuri in 1985 and 1987 respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in Food Science from Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's Canada in 1999. He has done International training on Global Nutrition 2002 at Uppsala University Uppsala, Sweden in 2002. He also attended follow-up International workshop on Global Nutrition 2002 at Hanoi, Vietnam in 2002. Dr. Chavan visited Denmark, Finland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Poland, Spain, Vietnam, Thailand, England, and U.S.A. under Global Nutrition 2002 Programme sponsored by Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). During this programme he worked on human nutritional diet and disorders as well as on genetically modified organisms (GMO).
Dr. Chavan worked as Senior Research Assistant in the Department of Biochemistry and Food Science and Technology at Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth Rahuri from 1988 to 2000. During his Ph. D., he worked as Technician/Research Associate at Atlantic Cool Climate Crop Research Center and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. He has guided 17 students for M.Sc. (Agri.) in Biochemistry and Food Science and Technology. From 2000 to 2004 he worked as Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth Rahuri. Now he is working as a Senior Cereal Food Technologist in the Department of Food Science and Technology at Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, Dist. Ahmednagar, Maharashtra.
Dr. Chavan received Korgavkar Trust Fellowship, under-graduate and post-graduate merit scholarship as well as Senior Research Fellowship from ICAR, New Delhi and United States Department of Agriculture U. S. A. He received University Graduate Fellowship from Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's Canada for his Ph. D. programme. Dr. Chavan also received international Scholar Award and Excellentiam Award for his Ph. D. research work from Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's Canada. He has received a Certificate of Appreciation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1992 for his work on processing of groundnut under the guidance of Dr. S. S. Kadam (Principle Investigator). He has written 101 research papers and 83 popular articles. He has authored fourteen books in Marathi, three books in English and two book chapters in English. He has been awarded Literary Award for his best book on Growth Regular on agriculture during 1997. Dr. Chavan was selected as a best group leader and best presentation for Global Nutrition 2002 by SIDA. He has been awarded Life Time Achievement Award 2004 for his outstanding contribution in postharvest technology of fruits and vegetables and allied fields by United Writers' Association of India. He has been elected as a Fellow of United Writers Association of India in 2004. Dr. Chavan received Pride of Nation and Maharashtra Gunigan Ratna Award for 2006. He also received Jewels of India Award for 2006 for his contribution in the field of Food Science and Technology.