eChapters

Waste is defined as anything that doesn’t add value to their operations. To the average person, waste is simply stuff that’s unwanted or useless. But from a scientific perspective, there’s really no such thing as waste. Nearly all the things we throw away can be transformed or processed in ways that make them useful again.

Waste comes in various forms, ranging from household trash to industrial byproducts. These include domestic waste, factory waste, e-waste, construction waste, agricultural waste, and more. We can categorize waste into different types:

Solid waste: This includes organic materials like vegetable and kitchen waste, as well as general household waste.

E-waste: Discarded electronic devices such as computers, TVs, and music systems fall into this category.

Liquid waste: This comprises water used in various industries, as well as waste from tanneries, distilleries, and thermal power plants.

Plastic waste: Items like plastic bags, bottles, and containers make up this category.

Maturity Standards and Harvesting Indices

Harvesting : Harvesting is detaching a commodity from the point of its origin. This point of origin may be an above ground plant part i.e. shoot eg. apple, tomato etc. or an underground plant part eg potato, carrot, etc. or in water i.e. harvesting of fish from a pond (not to be covered in this book).

1. Herbs and Spices
       
    1.    International Standards Organization (ISO) defines spices and condiments as: Vegetable products or mixtures thereof, free from extraneous matter, used for flavouring, seasoning and imparting aroma in foods.

    2.    Rosengarten describes a spice as a product which enriches or alters the quality of a thing, for example altering the taste of a food to give it zest or pungency; a piquant or lasting flavouring; or a relish. The term ‘spice’ is thus used to cover the use of spices, herbs and certain aromatic vegetables to impart odour and flavour to foods.

    3.    Herbs may be defined as the dried leaves of aromatic plants used to impart flavour and odour to foods with, sometimes, the addition of colour. The leaves are commonly traded separately from the plant stems and leaf stalks.

Aseptic packaging is a specialized and advanced method used to extend the shelf life of perishable foods without the need for refrigeration. This technique involves sterilizing both the food product and the packaging material separately and then filling and sealing the product in a sterile environment. Aseptic packaging has transformed the food industry, allowing products such as dairy, juices, soups, and sauces to remain fresh and safe at room temperature for extended periods. The ability to maintain product quality, nutritional value, and safety while reducing reliance on cold storage has made aseptic packaging a preferred choice in both food manufacturing and distribution. The process of aseptic packaging is both complex and precise, as it requires thorough sterilization of every component to ensure food safety. Packaging materials, typically a combination of paper, plastic, and aluminum, are carefully selected to withstand high temperatures while providing an effective barrier against contamination. This chapter explores the principles of aseptic packaging, its significance in food preservation, and the advanced technologies and materials used to achieve and maintain sterility in packaged foods.

The proximate system of analysis consists of the analytical determinations of water (moisture), ash, crude fat (ether extract), crude protein and crude fibre. Nitrogen-free extract (NFE), more or less representing sugars and starches, is calculated by difference rather than measured by analysis.

Water

1. Water constitutes about 70 percent of an adult’s body weight and water (moisture) is the predominant constituent in many foods.
2. All foods contain varying amounts of water in the range of 20 to 90%.
3. The hypothalamus is a brain center that controls activities such as maintenance of water balance, regulation of body temperature, and control of appetite.
4. Moisture content of some foods

The pineapple, botanically known as Ananas comosus Merr, is the most famous edible member of the Bromeliaceae family. It is native to southern Brazil and is known by a variety of names, including “pina” in Spanish, “abacaxi” in Portuguese, “ananas” in Dutch and French, “nanas” in Southern Asia and the East Indies, “po-lo-mah” in China, “sweet pine” in Jamaica, and merely “pine” in Guatemala (Morton, 1987). After banana and mango, the pineapple is the third most important tropical fruit of the world (Chen et al., 2019; Nath et al., 2019). The pineapple became a major cultural icon of luxury after its introduction to Europe in 17th century. Pineapple has been grown commercially in greenhouses and on many tropical plantations since the 1820s. Furthermore, it is the world’s third-largest tropical fruit producer. Hawaii was a major pineapple producer in the twentieth century, with Costa Rica, Brazil, and the Philippines accounting for nearly a third of global pineapple production. Pineapples grow as a small shrub, with the un-pollinated plant’s individual f lowers fusing to form multiple fruits. The plant is usually propagated from a side shoot or an offset produced at the top of the fruit and it matures in about a year.

Crop Improvement

Pineapple is usually propagated through asexual method by using slips, crowns or suckers. Sexual reproduction in pineapple is barely used due to its self-sterile nature and failure in formation of seeds. Seed set can occur in case of self-fertilization but the seedlings are with low vigour due to inbreeding depression (Robert et al., 2003). Pineapple is heterozygous in nature, on this wise hybridization is possible in this crop. Gametophytic self incompatibility is reported in this crop where pollen tube growth is repressed in the uppermost part of the style. Diploid chromosome number of the crop is 2n=50. The genome size of the crop is estimated to be 526Mb and total genes were anticipated to be around 25,862 in number (Zhang et al., 2014).

Introduction

Seafood provides about 25% of the global intake of animal protein and fetches a huge economy for developing nations. Many challenges concerning food safety and quality exist due to globalization and liberalization of the global f ish trade. International food safety regulatory bodies such as WTO and CAC through SPS and TBT Agreements work on ensuring food safety and quality. Adoption of risk-based analysis and implementation of the HACCP system are encouraged to maintain high seafood safety standards. International regulatory bodies set maximum residual limits for various environmental pollutants and contaminants to ensure consumer safety. Consumer education programs play important role to enhance awareness and improve transparency in the seafood supply chain. Internationally traded seafood products therefore need to meet the standards prescribed for food safety and quality requirements. In case of non-conformance, they could be detained, rejected and destroyed.

The global demand on seafood quality and safety requirement and the complexities of seafood supply chain make difficulty to ensure authenticity and traceability of seaood products in the market. Most seafood is exported from the country where it is caught while part of it via. a third country. Seafood pass-through complex supply chains involving, capture/culture, transshipment, processing, packaging, wholesale, retailing, and consumer. The global trade of seafood has led to a significant concern associated with seafood fraud.

12.1. Seafood Fraud

Seafood fraud is the practice of providing misleading information to the consumers about their product for financial gain. There are nine types of seafood fraud, which include species substitution, fishery substitution, IUU substitution, species adulteration, chain of custody abuse, catch method fraud, undeclared product extension, modern day slavery, and animal welfare

Introduction

Food is an important contributor to human well being and is essential for sustaining life. From this point of view food is expected to contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, protein fat, vitamins and other essential minerals which support life. The food production initially started for individual sustenance which slowly developed in to a community requirement necessitating the involvement of man and machinery for various activities concerned with food. The progress from famine in many parts of the world to the level of self-sufficiency and the role of science and agriculture have been absolutely significant in many parts of the world. India is no exception and the green revolution during the post 1960s and the succeeding blue and white revolution ensured the self-sufficiency in India.

Of late food acts as a vehicle for inclusion of hazard in food meant for human consumption. According to Grunert (2005), factors responsible for the alarmingly higher rate of concern by public include significantly higher number of food scares in public domain, critical understanding of production and processing of certain food products sold in the market as well as the diversified food choices of the consumers in different parts of the world. Besides, the increased awareness of the consumers on food related health issues also have its share in the increased concern on food at large.

Presently food is considered as a commodity which crosses international border concurrent with the human movement and hence quality has become a major concern. The traditional food is getting replaced with value added products, particularly ready to cook, ready to eat, partially cooked products, etc. consequent to life style changes. In order to meet the demand of the trade, the conventional processing is getting replaced by community processing or industrial processing with increased number of players in the primary production, processing, transportation and other value chain activities prompting larger product control. In the process, consumers are exposed to a variety of products produced as business ventures in modern food production systems needing efficient quality control and quality assurance to tackle the issues of quality. The increased incidence of hazards in both raw materials and final products consequent to the absence or inappropriate production schedule calls for increased food safety concerns. Besides the shelf-life of the products, addition of chemicals during the production also add to the concern.

Introduction

Many post-harvest treatments are applied to horticultural crops, either to maintain the quality (taste, colour, flavour, texture) or improve the visual appeal. Most important of these treatments are temperature management including the cold chain where the temperature of the crop is reduced rapidly and stabilize temperature after harvesting. Exposing the crop to high or low temperature and application of chemicals after harvest helps in managing/ prevent pest and diseases and sprouting occurrence respectively.

Harvested produce must be handled with care at every stage to avoid the mechanical damage and subsequent fungal/bacterial infection. Adopting appropriate post-harvest handling operation will minimize the all ill effects of post-harvest (Fig. 1).

India is bestowed with huge production of fruits, vegetables, cereals, millets, sugarcane along with meat production, milk production, fish production and poultry. Despite such a huge production in India, owing to perishable nature of these produce around 25-30 percent of the produce is being lost as post harvest loss. The one important reason for this may be the production of the crops are season specific and during the peak season the production is more while demand for consumption is less. It may be possible to cut down these losses to great extent, if these produces may be transported from the produces states to those who are not producing due to agro-climatic reasons. So for making transportation of the perishable a successful venture in decreasing post harvest loss, there must be proper cool chain management facilities both at producing site as well as marketing place. The aim of the cool chain management must be to keep the produce in saleable condition during entire storage periods. Some products are stored for short period whereas fresh fruits, vegetables require cold storage. Foods before keeping into the storage room need some pre-storage treatments for better results.

    1.    Life blood of food companies are
        a)    Existing products    b)    New Products
        c)     New packaging material    d)     Food technologists
    2.    New Products are developed to meet
        a)    Health & Nutritional requirements
        b)    Environmental & Social requirements
        c)     Convenience & handling
        d)     All
    3.    What are the characteristics of a line extension in a variant of an established line of food products 
        a)    Little research    
        b)    Minimum manufacturing changes
        c)     No change in logistics and supply chain
        d)     All
    4.    The following one is not a characteristic of new product development through line extension
        a)    New purchasing skills
        b)    No change in logistics and supply chain
        c)     No change in storage of RM &PM
        d)     Minimum R&D

The success of a TTO relies on a systematic approach encircling factors like assessment, valuation, marketing, negotiation, and post-transfer management (fi gure 8). This chapter covers the activities that are essential for the effective functioning of a TTO. Other activies Technology Assessement /Valuation Financial Managemnt Major Activities of technology transfer office Commercialization IP Management Fostering Innovation
Fig 8: Various activities of TTOs.
3.1 Technology assessment - A pillar of innovation commercialization
The process of transitioning an innovative technology to commercial reality requires a stringent and formal process known as technology assessment. This early stage is crucial as it determines the viability of an invention by analysing practicability of the invention as well as its uniqueness and the likelihood of it being adopted in the target markets. In the absence of this preliminary examination, the chance of technology’s potential being mismatched to the market can arise.
a) Scientific merit and technical feasibility
A key benchmark in assessing technologies involves the identification of
scientific validity and technical performance. An innovation’s viability depends on the fact that it complies with good scientific practice or the innovative application of a new paradigm that has empirically confirmable validity. It is important to determine whether the invention’s underlying mechanism can be reliably proven through established scientific practice. A working prototype allows for empirical testing in different conditions and serves as proof of practical application. In addition to that, scalability has to be tested critically. It often happens that innovations perform well in a controlled laboratory setting but lose efficiency or cost-effectiveness in the case of mass production. The viability of the implementation on a grand scale becomes a core concern in this phase of the evaluation.

1. FRUIT CROPS

1.1 Physiological Disorders

A wide variety of physiological disorders are found in apple fruit, but the susceptibility varies with variety, pre-harvest factors and post harvest conditions. Disorders can be considered in three categories:

1. Disorders that develop only on the tree: Most important is watercore in which intercellular air spaces in the core and cortical tissues become filled with liquid, Presence of watercore in fruit at harvest creates problems in certain varieties such as ‘Delicious’ because fruit with moderate or severe watercore can develop breakdown during storage.
2. Disorders that develop on the tree and during storage: Bitter pit is a disorder characterized by development of discrete pitting of the cortical flesh. Rapid cooling, CA storage and application of postharvest calcium drenches may be able to reduce its occurrence.
3. Disorders that develop during storage: Senescent breakdown disorders, chilling disorders and disorders associated with inappropriate atmospheres during storage are common disorders. The most common disorders associated with temperature and atmospheres are superficial scald, soft scald, low temperature breakdown, brown core, internal browning, low O2 injury, and high CO2 injury.

Abstract

Functional foods and nutraceuticals are one of the fastest-growing segments of the food industry. The demand for these foods is driven by health conscious consumer and the growing awareness of the close connection between diet and health, particularly in relation to chronic diseases. Over the past five years (20082012), the Indian Nutraceuticals Market has been growing at a rapid pace and is expected to rise to US $ 5 billion by 2015. The rapid growth and development of this new industry combined with the need to protect consumer health and interests, has led to the evolution of a myriad of different regulatory frameworks and policies across multiple markets. Japan was one of the first countries to recognize a different category of healthier food products. The Japanese government formally accepted this category in the 1980s. Other developed countries viz. The EU, The US, Canada etc also regulated this sector during 1990s. In India, the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 (FSSA) was enacted in 2006 in response to pressure from stakeholders and the food industry, transforming the regulation of food in India. Punjab state, with abundance of food grains and increasing trends in fruits and vegetables, provides options for both the producer and growth promotion in the nutraceuticals sector through partenship between research centers, private entrepreneurs and indigenous communities. Regulatory frameworks should focus on the protection of consumers, promotion of fair trade and innovation in the sector. This paper discusses functional foods and nutraceuticals as per food regulations prevalent in various countries and highlights how these regulatory frameworks play a major role in transforming the food sector.

INTRODUCTION

Food processing as a technological regime is undergoing a revolutionary change in terms of conception, product and process design and energetics. The conventional approach of a food processor is to develop products with a long shelf-life in user friendly packaging systems. Food processors are usually bothered about sensory attributes and microbiological profiles without much emphasis on the fate of heat labile nutritional and nutraceutical components. The changing consumer perception is slowly but steadily leading towards emergence of novel technologies without depending upon conventional thermal processing. A few years before, non-thermal techniques have emerged for food processing and preservation, but these techniques were restricted to framing of fundamentals with regard to the inactivation of vegetative and reproductive bodies of microbes and the deteriorative enzymes.

Milk production in India is a subsidiary activity of agriculture in contrast to the organized dairy sector in the western countries. Farmers and landless labour maintain one to five milch animals. As a result, small quantities of milk are produced in a scattered manner. Due to this reason, milk procurement models from western countries, such as bulk cooling and bulk transportation are not applicable under Indian conditions. Collection of small amounts of milk is scattered over long distances and, therefore, poses a formidable challenge in maintaining the quality attributes and keeping costs down.

3.1. Rural Milk Collection

A systematic approach to rural milk collection suitable for the tropical climate and techno-economic conditions prevailing in India has been developed, based on the indigenous experience gained over the past few decades. In the first phase, extensive surveys are undertaken in the milkshed areas, where the milk plant is to be established. The second phase involves ‘route planning’ taking into account, availability of quantities of milk, access to roads for plying vehicles and distance from the site of dairy plant. Then zones are identified, representing equal costs of collection and transportation. In the third phase, planning is done for locating the primary collection centres as well as chilling centres, where, milk can be cooled to 4ºC before transporting to the milk plant. Milk may be collected from individual producers either by the contractor or by forming village level cooperative societies.

In today’s innovation driven economies, turning a great idea or new technology into something investors want to fund takes careful planning. This process is called investor readiness. which means making sure the idea works, has a market, and is presented in a way that makes investors feel confident. Therefore, Investor readiness means the preparedness of an innovation to attract and secure investment from potential investors. It has all the essential parameters in place that an investor would evaluate before deciding to invest. For inventors, this means showcasing innovation’s business potential, potential for growth, and the capability to provide a return on investment. Understanding investor readiness is important because it directly influences scalability and growth of invention. Even the most innovative ideas can struggle to find the financial benefits without showcasing business potential.
Why it is important to discuss investor readiness
Investor readiness is the state in which a technology, its value proposition, and its founding team are significantly prepared to engage with securing funding from potential investors. Without investor readiness, even high-potential innovations may fail to reach the market due to gaps in business clarity, legal assurance, or team maturity. TTOs play an important role in this process by acting as intermediaries between inventor and investors. Modern day TTOs are more inclined to prepare technologies and associated teams to attract investment. This expanded mandate of TTOs and brought in investor readiness. It requires a wellstructured approach focused on aligning academic innovations with investor expectations. TTOs help in creating this readiness by guiding researchers through commercial pathways, derisking technologies, and translating technical advancements into investment suitable.

During the latter part of the 20^th century, rapid economic development in most countries coupled with population growth propelled the inevitable demand for more food and manufactured goods. However, requirement of more food is placing unprecedented demands on agriculture and natural resources. Humans have made agriculture the dominant environmental threat by clearing forests, cultivating marginal lands, and intensifying farming in sensitive landscapes and watersheds. Most of the land use systems in the tropics are characterized by a rapid decline in productivity and high rates of soil and environmental degradation which need to be addressed in a proper way.

Agriculture has changed radically since the end of World War II. Productivity of most crops has scaled to new levels because of the adoption of new technologies, machines, increased chemical inputs, and government policies. However, continuing agricultural production without harming the environment is a challenge, which must be tackled along with economic growth. Some of the environmental issues related to agriculture are top soil loss, groundwater contamination, air pollution, greenhouse gas emission, decline of family farms neglect of the working conditions of farm labourers, new threats to human health and safety by the spread of new pathogens, economic concentration in food and agricultural industries, and disintegration of rural communities (Brodt et al, 2011). This situation prompted world nations, political leaders, scientists and planners to pay more attention to the concept of sustainable development. As a concept, sustainability is concerned with the continuity of environmental economic, and social aspects of human society.

Introduction

The green revolution which initiated in India during 1960’s to 1980’s was an attempt to overcome the then prevailing threats of food scarcity and lack of foreign exchange. The food scarcity was a result of severe drought which engulfed the country as well as the political situation it had to face after its short period of gaining independence (Reddy, 2010). The only way out to overcome the acute food scarcity was intensive agriculture, with the use of high yielding varieties, chemical fertilisers and pesticides which heavily boosted agriculture production in India. The remarkable increase in production and productivity resulted in non-judicious use of chemical inputs to extract the maximum from the degrading soil. This marked the era of soil, water and air pollution and extreme health hazards to all life forms.

Rachel Carson’s “Silent spring” in 1962 was an insight into the path of DDT the then prevalent pesticide through its effect on the food chain as well as the environment. She was one among the scientists to raise her voice against the indiscriminate use of pesticides. The evident impacts raised concerns over the continued use of chemical inputs (Lairon, 2010). The situation warranted the reduced or limited use of chemicals in agriculture which resulted in an “organic movement”. This caused a slow, but evident shift in the interest of growers and consumers towards organic agriculture for health security, food safety, quality and better returns (Niggli et al., 2007).

This review is an attempt to analyse the various factors affecting the safety and quality of organic food products in comparison with conventional food. Drawing a proper conclusion was a difficult task due to the limited availability of scientific papers published in this aspect, indication of only trends rather than solid proofs and non-revelation of non-significant data regarding related experiments. However, this review could evaluate the positive and negative aspects of organic cultivation and food production from the available data, so as to suggest measures for improving the quality and safety of organic food products.

It has been found that at the household level the health of female members in any family suffers to a large extent. It could be encountered to low health care, poor housing or/and environmental conditions. Due to malnutrition it affects the health to such an extent that it gives rise to many diseases. For a sustainable nutritional status food and various aspects of health needs attention. Looking into that, nutrition is directly related to the health status. For food and nutrition security it is vital to see the availability, accessibility and utilization of food. The World Food Programme (WFP) developed the Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping (VAM) project to analyse the vulnerability to food insecurity of target populations. A prominent part of VAM is related to food access. The demographic and Health Survey (DHS), funded by USAID, provides health data for many countries to help them design their national policy. FAO has developed the Global Information Early Warning System (GIEWS), which collects data related to temporary food insecurity. Under the leadership of WHO, several health surveillance systems have been developed and implemented to monitor the epidemiology of various forms of malnutrition and of selected diseases. At the meso or sub-national level, food market surveys provide data on the availability of food. Agricultural production surveys, intra-household food frequency interviews, immunization surveys and anthropometric surveys of children under five can be used to assess the availability, accessibility and utilization of food and its stability at micro level. Most common Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) indicators at different social and administrative levels depends on the supply and demand. To determine the national situation of food availability data on the production of different food commodities, fertility rate and the trends in internal population needs to be seen. Food prices and per capita food consumption are indicators for national food accessibility. The rates of stunting, wasting and underweight in children, low Body Mass Index (BMI) in adults and low birth weight are FNS impact indicators that designate the extent to which food is adequately being used, utilized and converted into a satisfactory national nutrition situation. Fluctuations and shortages of food availability or accessibility in food prices make the national FNS unstable. Sensitive indicators for accessibility of food are the prices in the market. The sewage disposal and diarrheal diseases (DD) rates affect food utilization.A temporal food and nutrition insecurity arises due to pre and post harvest food availability and accessibility along with low BMI.If the food is in shortage leading to the consumption of more wild foods indicates reduced food availability at household level. Also if the number of meals per day goes down and unemployment increases it indicates low food accessibility.Malnutrition indicators like wasting, goitre or anaemia among the household members show reduced food utilization at micro level. Finally, changes in pre-harvest food consumption practices are good indicators for temporal food insecurity.