Assessment of shelf life and organoleptic values of some vegetables by eco-friendly methods to enhance the livelihood of marginal farmer of Gorakhpur region.(U.P.)

Abstract

In India quality deterioration of vegetables produced takes place immediately after harvest due to lack of on-farm storage. Refrigeration is energy intensive, expensive, not so easy to install and run in remote areas. Due to lack of cold/ cool storage space a substantial amount of fruit and vegetables are lost after production.The efficiency of cool chamber on shelf life and organoleptic properties of fresh cut products were studied for leaf and fruit, vegetables. An experiment was conducted to assess the effect of cold water and salt water treatment on fresh cut products in increasing the shelf life and maintaining the organoleptic properties in two different storage systems and the result were compared with normal/room temperature. During storage, physiological loss of weight and organoleptic values were evaluated. It was observed that the cold water treatment on vegetables shows increased shelf life and maintains its organoleptic properties as compared to other treatment given under cool chamber. It is an eco-friendly energy saving and cost effective alternative method to substitute refrigeration and useful for small farmers. In vegetables like Radish, (Raphanus sativus) Brinjal (Solanum melongena), Pea (Pisum sativum) Lauki (Lagenaria siceraria) Chilli (Capsicum annum) Tomato (Lypersicon esculentum) Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea) during storage for treatment normal, with normal salt water treatment, normal cold water treatment, cool chamber with cold water treatment were given at 1,3,5,7,9,11and 21^th day. The cold water treatment with cool chamber is more beneficial in vegetables to the marginal farmers.