Postharvest Technology of Horticultural Crops

The book serves as a comprehensive, ready-reference manual for both students and teachers involved in undergraduate and postgraduate programs in the field of horticulture and postharvest technology. Spanning 33 chapters, the book covers a wide range of topics, including an introduction to equipment and machinery, maturity indices, pre-storage treatments, low-cost storage technologies, and processing and value-added products such as jams, jellies, marmalades, beverages, pickles, chutneys, tomato products, and canned fruits and vegetables. The book also covers cut-out analysis and the preparation of cider, as well as vase life analysis of flowers, physicochemical and sensory analysis of fresh and processed products. Additionally, ten annexures have been included that provide helpful information on fruit product orders, temperature corrections for measuring TSS, maturity indices, and units of conversion, as well as a guide to preparing cleaning and chemical solutions, food additives, and information on suppliers of machinery and equipment. The book has been written in simple language, with separate instructions for students, teachers, and relevant information on each topic to make the conduct of practical experiments easy and systematic. The book also includes color plates of some of the machinery and equipment to aid identification, even if the equipment or machinery is not available in a particular laboratory. This book aims to fulfill the long-standing need for practical manuals on various aspects of postharvest technology in horticultural crops, and it will be of great use to students, researchers, teachers, and anyone with an interest in the subject.