Handling and Preservation of Fruits and Vegetables by Combined Methods for Rural Areas

This manual is intended to serve as a guide to farmers and processors of fruits and vegetables in rural areas. It contains basic but valuable information on post-harvest handling and marketing operations and storage of fresh and processed products. It provides practical examples of preserving fruits and vegetables addressing a combination of factors, highlighting technology which, when combines, has a positive and synergistic effect in preventing biochemical and physico-chemical reactions and microbial growth -the main causes of quality losses in fruits and vegetables. The suggested methodologies combine technologies such as mild heat treatment, water activity reduction (aw), lowering of the pH and use of anti-microbial substances to realize the potential of minimally processed, high-moisture fruit products. These relatively new technologies have been successfully applied to several important tropical and non-tropical fruits in different countries of Latin America and are considered appropriate and recommended for use in other fruit-producing countries around the world.