Harvesting done........ Now What?

Ever wonder what happens after the crop is harvested, what actually farmers do before this harvested crop reaches your home and how these perishable items are able to stay the way they are without being spoiled.
Well, we never ask ourselves all these questions on regular basis, but when we do we always found these questions difficult to answer. So let's take a look at what practices farmers and collecting units do before the product reaches our home.
Generally what farmers and collecting unit do is known as post-harvest treatments. Now a question will arise in your mind that what is post-harvest... well post-harvest is the stage just after the harvesting the crop during this stage the produce can spoil and losses might happen. As for post-harvest treatment, these are some treatments which help in increasing the storage or marketable life of the crop. These treatments include temperature control, use of chemical, gases, etc so that the product storage as well as marketable life increases.
Now, let's discuss what they actually do:

1) Cleaning
    As the name suggests cleaning is done to remove the dirt, debris and chemical adhered to the
fruit or vegetable which is obtained from the field. This process is usually done at first but in some cases, it is done at later stages. It is done using the detergent and scrubs, even water jets can be used for cleaning.

2) Astringency Treatment
     Astringency means the contraction of the skin or other body tissue, this happens in fruits due to the presence of tannin. Astringency might impart an unpleasant flavour which might result in the low market price for the product hence is treatment is equally important. Astringency is often associated with immature fruits.

Treatment for this uses a high level of carbon dioxide which results in the reduction of astringency. Storage of same in 4% CO2 at -1°C for about 2 weeks before removal from storage followed by 6-18 hours in 90%  CO2 at 17°C remove astringency from fruit. Many such methods are used for this treatment.

3) Antioxidants

    As the name suggests antioxidants are the substances which reduce and prevent the damage caused by free radicals. In case of fresh produce, they have a high chance of having storage disorders for example scald in apples which can be controlled with the help of treatment using an antioxidant called as Ethoxyquin which is marketed as 'Stop Scald'. 

4) Sprout Suppressant

    Some times when we go for buying potatoes we see that some potatoes have formed eye and some potatoes even have some leaves coming out of it. Actually what happens the potato starts producing sprouts. Now Such potato is usually thrown away which is counted as food loss. Now to deal with such problems the collection houses use sprout suppressor. Some other vegetables which produce sprouts are onions, aroids, sweet potatoes, yam.

5) Fruit Coating

   In this treatment, the fruit is coated with different substances using sprays and dips. This is done to improve the appearance as well as to provide a protective layer to delay the deterioration

Some of the coatings are tal prolong, semperfresh, chitosan, vapor gard, trehalose.

6) 1-MCP

    Reading this subheading one might really get confused as what is 1-MCP, well 1-MCP stands for 1-methyl cyclopropane. This compound helps in reducing the production of ethylene in fruits and vegetable which helps in increasing the storage time. Ethylene is synthesis by all plant species especially by climacteric produce. This ethylene produce results in maturity, ripening as well as spoilage of fruit, hence it is required to reduce the rate at which this ethylene is produced after harvesting the crops.

7) Curing

   Many root crops have a cork layer over the surface that is called a periderm. This serves as a protection against microbial infections and excessive water loss. This layer can be broken or damaged during harvesting and handling operations so curing is essentially a wound-healing operation to replace the damaged periderm and is achieved by exposure to an appropriate temperature at high humidity for a period of time. Curing is applied to fruits especially citrus fruits. The mechanism is different from root crops, but it effectively heals wounds and reduces disease levels. Drying is also carried out to aid preservation of bulb crops such as bulb onions and garlic. This does not involve drying the crop to even lower moisture content as in dehydration, but only drying the outer layers.

There are many more methods such as Hot water treatment and Vapour heat treatment, if you guys want to know about these methods please comment below.

Also if any query comment down below and i will make sure to answer it.