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This is probably the best technical information I have seen aimed at the training of small scale vegetable and fruit processors. The first book covers the principles of post-harvest handling, storage and processing of fruits and vegetables while the second provides recipes and guidance to put these principles into practice.
click image for free acces to these books
The books We’re developed for trainers working with household processors in Afghanistan, but the information is so comprehensive that it will be useful for a range of users including the new small scale food processing enterprise.
The first book of 85 pages covers the following in detail, using a clear and simple style supported by many photographs and drawings.
INTRODUCTION
WHY DO WE NEED TO PROCESS FRUIT AND VEGETABLES?
POST-HARVEST HANDLING AND STORAGE
PROCESSING: INTRODUCTION TO GENERAL PRINCIPLES
- Principles of food preservation
- Overview of fruit and vegetable processing techniques
- Summary of small-scale fruit and vegetable processing techniques
- Processing pre-treatments for fruit and vegetables
- Description of processing methods for fruit and vegetables
POST PROCESSING PACKAGING AND STORAGE
HYGIENE AND SAFETY
The second book of around 90 pages covers the detail of producing a whole range of products as listed below from the table of contents:
DRYING
- Processing outline for dried fruit and vegetable
- Dried tomato
- Dried apricots
- Dried onions
- Dried apples
JAM-MAKING
- Processing outline for Jam and Jelly
- Fruit jam or jelly – process details and quality
- Apricot jam
- Carrot and lemon jam
- Cherry jam
- Mulberry jam
- Apple jam
- Apple jelly
SAUCES AND CHUTNEYS
- Processing outline for sauce and chutney
- Sauce and chutney – process details and quality assurance
- Italian style tomato sauce
- Italian style tomato sauce
- Tomato paste
- Tomato sauce or ketchup
- Tomato puree or simple concentrate
- Tomato concentrate (non-cook method)
- Coriander chutney (chatni gashnizeh)
- Vegetable chutney
- Tomato chutney (Chatni Badenjani Romi)
- Chili chutney (Chatni Morchi Sorkh/Sabz )
PICKLES
- Processing outline for lactic acid fermented pickles (atchar)
- Fermented pickles – process details and quality assurance
- Pickled cucumbers
- Mixed pickles
- Pumpkin pickle
VINEGAR
- Process outline for fruit and vinegar
- Fruit vinegar – quality assurance and processing notes
- Tomato vinegar
- Mulberry vinegar
If you have any interest in processing vegetables and fruit, these books are really highly recommended.
Here is a 288 page , high quality manual covering the steps required to set up a small food processing business.
click image to visit website
The table of the contents of the book says it all
The only downside is that it is written for Canada so many of the contacts are not applicable to local circumstances. However, the quality and depth of the information and the fact that it’s free to download make its retention as a reference worthwhile.
This document entitled “Cost-effective management tools for ensuring food quality and safety”is actually the instruction manual for training designed for small and medium agroindustrial enterprises.
click image to visit site
The specific objectives of the course which is expected to take at least 40 hours are
Identify the characteristics and usefulness of some basic tools for collecting,
processing and analysing market information.
Present the sequence of steps to be followed for market research and
preparing plans.
Emphasize the importance of a proactive approach to quality and safety
within the agro-industrial enterprise.
Review the tools and systems available for improved food quality and safety
assurance throughout the agrifood chain.
Illustrate the principles of product traceability and its importance as a
support tool in quality and safety improvement programmes.
Underline the importance of quality management for implementing initiatives
to improve product quality and safety.
Outline the use of planning principles as a tool for improving quality and
safety
Although written as the structure on which trainers can write their course, there is a wealth of good information in here. The information on marketing, market reseal and planning is very detailed but simply and clearly explained.
Sections on improving quality and safety, implementing quality management in small enterprises and management of the process are equally useful.
 from foodstuff.co.za
Why did it take so long. I’ve been adding soda to my juice for years, so don’t intend paying for the can or growing my carbon footprint!
The growing competition in the retail market in sub Saharan Africa has a lot to do with the appeal of packaging of typical first world products over that of local entrepreneurs.
Several years ago entrepreneurs and community groups selling food products, often use recycled bottles and a simple black and white printed label like those in the photograph below.
photograph by DIGIVU
published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
I must admit this photo is several years old and was of a community groups product. It is however indicative of products that I saw on supermarket shelves competing with the products of multinationals.
The availability of suitable packaging at an affordable price seemed to limit the choice available to entrepreneurs. Unattractive products made competition with multinationals impossible.But please prove me wrong and show me what has replaced these products, email me at dave@digivu.co.zaWith this picture in my mind I came across a publication titled “Appropriate Food Packaging Solutions for Developing Countries” I thought that maybe I had found the solution.
click the image to visit the website
The book is an interesting study and gives information on the packaging market internationally and in Africa. It is really aimed at encouraging the development of a packaging industries in those countries of Africa which have not yet established local capacity.
The report identifies the potential of packaging linked to increasing food demand worldwide but a lack of export ready packaging systems and the small local market as discouraging investment in the packaging industry. In a “catch 22″ way this limits the potential to expand imports.
The report recommends that investment should be in the local production of packaging material rather than in equipment manufacture or packaging services.
I would be interested to get feedback from you who know the real situation and maybe have solutions that are closer to the actual packaging needs in the plant! You can email me using this link.
A while back I wrote about pressure processing which was driven by the “fresher flavour” of juice that is not heated. Freeze concentration is driven by the same quality concerns and is an alternative to concentration by boiling off water.
 click the image to visit the website
This article from the Institute of Food Technologists covers freeze concentration in a few pages giving information on the process and discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the technology
Interesting is that the energy needed to melt a kg of ice is several times lower than that required to evaporate a kg of water. In these days of high energy costs and carbon footprints this would seem to be an advantage. However, the freeze concentrator can not be run in mutiple effect plants which allows an evaporator with sufficient effects to use almost the same energy.
Even more disadvantageous, is that the freeze concentrator is often unable to reach the concentration required and a thermal evaporator has to be used as a finisher.
This rather old book by The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has an interesting, very detailed and clear section on post harvest and processing technology for food security.
<P style=”text-align:center;”><font size=”-2″>click the image to visit the website</font></p>
Neither the age ( published 14 year ago ) nor the fact that it focusses on small scale and household processing distract from the usefulness of the information.
I previously posted on getting your chewing gum in your own customised package, but here you can create a carbonated soft drink for your own use and for sale through the manufacturing company.
I had thought I would follow what was happening at Durban online and find some interesting stuff on which to base a post. However, the amount of information is stunning. I downloaded an iPad app which pulls together all the information and found things like a 170 page report on emissions down to the level of dairy cow methane emissions on a country basis. But finding something relevant and interesting is more difficult. Things like President Zuma’s week address ( not like the determined political heros he opened with) and Canada’s threat to resign from Kyoto are in the news and don’t bear repeating here.
 click the image to visit the website
So I thought this image of a web page might be more interesting. Walkers is a leading United Kingdom (UK) manufacturer of potato crisps retained the Carbon Trust to determine the carbon footprint of their crisps. Carbon Trust is a not for profit organisation set up by the UK government to “led on lows carbon technologies” who claim to save the UK £ 1 million a day.
They found that a 34,5 g packet of crisps produced 85 g of carbon dioxide. In comparison I found, for a post on bread buying behaviors in France, that a standard baguette produces 292 g of carbon dioxide. A bottle of cola has a carbon footprint of 340 g of carbon dioxide.
The pictures along the righthand side of the page represent the operations for which the footprint was calculated. Like most foods the footprint for the growing of the raw materials used, is a major part of the footprint in this case 36%. The most obvious excessive cost is packaging which makes up 34% of the co st and is normally significantly lower. The analysis indicates that there is no emission in the household. Many foods have high emissions in the household arising from cold storage and cooking costs as well as the effect of food which is inevitably wasted.
The effect of food waste on the carbon footprint is an issue that was previously not considered, but which it is now realised is very important. There seems to be a consensus that at least one third of the food produced is not eaten. This is accepted both in affluent societies where the loss is mainly in processing and the household and in developing/subsistence communities where it is mainly in storage and post harvest handling. The carbon footprint of the of the food lost is effectively added directly to the carbon footprint calculated for the food without considering losses.
Not only is the food lost, but all the inputs to produce the food is lost and must be reflected in the footprint.
Those attending COPQ 17 are set to produce an extra 15 000 tons of Carbon Dioxide over the duration of the function.
click the image to visit the website
To put this in some kind of perspective this is about the same size as the carbon footprint of the territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha and equal to around a month of Burundi’s footprint. From another viewpoint it is equivalent to something over 1 minute of China’s annual footprint or about equal to the anual footprint of about 900 US citizens.
All very confusing, but does it make sense for 25 000 people to travel, which is the major source of emissions, to “the other end of the world” to discuss how to reduce emissions? What would be the carbon footprint as well as the effectivity of doing this by alternate means of communication. PS just for those who might wonder, my very simplistic view of a carbon footprint and why we look at it is:
- The carbon footprint is a quantitative measure of gasses released into the atmosphere that create a greenhouse effect
- The greenhouse effect results in a rise in the atmosphere’s temperature 
- A rising atmospheric temperature has many effects including more variable weather, water level rise and changes in farming environment 
- These effects are negative for the future of the world
A previous DIGIVU post, reported a clever graphics which presented the carbon footprint of a number of foods in a graphical form. Have a look at this, it’s really informative.
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