Post Harvest Research Centre, Faisalabad

Post Harvest Research Centre was established in 1989-90 with assistance of ADP/UNDP. The Post harvest technology deals with “produce management after harvesting till consumption” and to maintain quality during storage in order to obtain the maximum market price. The major objective of this Research Centre is to conduct Research and Development work on postharvest quality, safety and marketability of fresh horticultural produce and to extend the research based information to the farmers and exporters. In 2008-9 Food Technology Section and Bio-Chemistry Section were brought under the umbrella of Post Harvest Research Centre. The Food Technology Section was established in 1968 with the objective to carry out research and development studies on processing, preservation and development of new value added products from various fruits and vegetables. This section has potentially contributed in value addition by developing food products and has trained thousands of human resources both male and female in food processing and preservation techniques. Pilot scale production and sale of various food products is another allied objective, helping to popularize the use of good quality food products among the masses, as well as to deposit handsome income annually to the government treasury.

Accordingly, Bio-Chemistry Section undertakes research, relating to nutritional evaluation of crops and provides analytical services to the farmers, scientists, industrialists and Research Institutions for quality testing of their research materials and products. It also develops strategies for utilization of agro-industrial products, by-products and wastes and evaluates nutritive values of different varieties of fodder crops for animal feeding.

Mission

• Post harvest Research Centre under Agriculture Department has a mandate to provide technical assistance on post harvest management of fruits and vegetables
• Minimizing post harvest losses and increase the availability of quality produce for domestic and export market
• Dissemination of Postharvest management technologies for various fruits and vegetables
• Achieving food security and poverty alleviation.
• To conduct research and development work on post harvest technology and current food-based national issues with more emphasis on fruits & vegetables preservation , processing and value addition 
• To produce various innovative/functional/nutritious food products at pilot scale level

Objectives

• To conduct R & D work on post harvest technology of fruits & vegetables
• To develop innovative storage technologies for indigenous Fruits & vegetables
• To modernize cold stores
• To introduce grading & packing technology among local community
• To conduct local training & demonstration programmes
• To render advisory services to enterprises & growers  

Future Plans

• Provision of assistance to improve the existing storage situation for indigenous fruits and vegetables
• To introduce Vapour Heat Technology (VHT) for fruits and vegetables 
• To introduce disinfestation techniques to extend life of horticultural commodities
• To assist the export of fresh fruits and vegetables
• Strengthening of national and international research collaboration
• Development and standardization of new value added fruit and vegetable products to match with needs of World Trade Organization (WTO) scenario.
• Create awareness regarding food safety and security, nutrition education and changing food habits which could help in uplifting the nutritional status of the people.
• To carry out intensive training and demonstration programs regarding preparation of value-added fruits and vegetables products in order to reduce the post harvest losses of horticultural commodities and create micro-level income-generating opportunities. 

Research Activities

Application of different chemical treatments, heat treatment, packaging material and other advanced storage techniques to reduce post harvest losses.

• Use of different pre cooling methods to extend the shelf life of green leafy vegetables.
• Application of different chemical treatments to maintain quality attributes of fruits & vegetables during post-harvest storage. (e.g. oxalic acid, sodium carbonate, etc.)
• Use of natural plant extracts to prepare skin coating materials for fruits & vegetables e.g. potato peel extract, banana peel extract, aloe vera gel etc.
• Use of edible film coatings like chitosan, pectin, Aloe Vera etc. to maintains quality attributes of fruits & vegetables during post-harvest storage
• Use of irradiation at different levels for prolonging shelf life of fresh produce i.e musambi, potatoes, mango etc.
• Hot water treatment to control fruit fly infestation during cold storage of fruits like gauva, mango, papaya.
• Osmotic dehydration of fruits to prepare fruit candies with nutritional properties to overcome malnutrition issues in children.
• Standardization of protocols for dehydration of fruits like figs, grapes, peach, apricot etc.
• Effectiveness of different packaging techniques in maintaining shelf stability & quality of fresh cut produce.
• Controlled atmospheric storage of fruits & vegetables to preserve quality & extend shelf life without chemical application.
• Incorporation of ethylene and oxygen scavengers inside packaging material to enhance shelf stability.
• Development & evaluation of functional food products like soy milk, guava, aloe vera drink, lemon barley RTS drink and turmeric drink etc.
• Use of different packaging materials like modified atmospheric packaging (MAP) high density  polyethylene (HDPE) low density polyethylene (LDPE), Styrofoam etc. to maintain quality attributes of fruit and vegetables for longer time.

Achievements

Following are the achievements of the institute:

Post Harvest Technology

• Skin coating material developed by PHRC
• Development of pre-cooling techniques
• Hot water treatment (HWT)
• Controlled Atmosphere Storage Laboratory
• Mobile pre-cooling unit
• Potato on-farm storage structure (ducts) developed by PHRC
• Introduced the grading packing shed for the export of kinnow, mango and potato
• Development of Innovative food products with therapeutic value (Turmeric drink, Apple Aloe Vera jam, Aloe Vera drink, Carrot pomace cookies, Avocado jam and sauce
• Developed long life drinking yoghurt
• Developed an energy booster Green Mango-Mint RTS drink
• Shelf life of mango varieties, Sindhry, Summar Behisht and Safaid Chounsa were extended upto 32, 28 and 40 days respectively
• Disinfestations of kinnow mandarin were carried out at  2.2 o C with RH 90 % for a period of 14 days as required by China and Iran
• Irradiation Techniques were successfully used to extended shelf life of onion upto 180 days with no sprouting/rotting
• Controlled ripening of tomato was done with ethylene for colour development during the winter season
• Introduction of grading & packing standards for major fruits & vegetables
• Cold store modernization resulted 15 –25 % energy saving
• Research & development trials to develop appropriate storage technology for mango, citrus, potato, onion etc. for extension of shelf life
• Developed Mobile Air Blast Pre Cooling Unit.
• More than 3600 persons were trained during last five years through training & demonstration programme through out the Punjab

Food Technology Section

• Development and optimization of jamun-bitter gourd dietetic drink
• Exploring nutritional and sensory attributes of rose and hibiscus petal jam
• Preparation and quality evaluation of amla powder as dietary supplement in cookies
• Development and quality assessment of carbonated date drink
• Development and characterization of fig-based candy
• Development and nutritional evaluation of multigrain muffins supplemented with pomegranate peel powder
• Development and characterization of innovative fruit leather from jamun fortified with apple peel powder
• Enhancing the nutritional profile of papaya fruit leather through fortification with chia seed powder
• Probing the preservative role of lemongrass oil and extract in ready to serve fresh peach juice
• Development of osmo-dehydrated candies from banana pseudo stem for effective waste valorization
• Development and quality assessment of aloe vera and lemon juice-based carbonated drink
• Development and characterization of value-added preservative free cauliflower snack
• Development of a functional beverage: beetroot juice fortified with hibiscus sabdariffa extract
• Effect of aloe-vera gel on the quality parameters of pear preserve
• Development and quality assessment of apple, beetroot and carrot blended juice
• Development of an innovative vegetable-based spread
• Development of lysine fortified persimmon-orange jam
• Development and standardization of onion and tomato curry powder
• Optimizing and standardizing the dehydration conditions of sweet potato chips
• Development and optimization of apple and papaya leaf extract therapeutic RTS drink
• Development and quality assessment of jamun peach fruit butter during storage
• Cherry fruit value addition with non-nutritive sweetener in place of sugar
• Standardization of antioxidant enriched apple pomace supplemented vegan mayonnaise
• Optimization of aloe vera enriched guava cheese
• Preparation and characterization of persimmon fruit leather
• Application of edible coatings to improve shelf-life of fresh-cut potatoes
• Formulation and optimization of a natural blended drink from mosambi, grapefruit and ginger using response surface methodology
• Utilization of tomato peel waste powder for the development of nutritionally enhanced carrot sauce
• Evaluating the potential of sonication assisted aqueous cinnamon extract in extending shelf life of fresh-cut carrots
• Evaluating the encapsulating potential of fructo oligosaccharide and glacto-oligosaccharide to develop probiotic functional fruit drink
• Development and standardization of aloe vera based mango fruit jam
• Development of spirulina based protein rich nutritional bar
• Effect of potato peel extract and chemical anti browning agents on the quality of fresh-cut apple slices during storage

Facilities

Following are the facilities provided by the institute:

• Nutritional quality evaluation of grain crops, fruits, vegetables and fodder crops. In addition, analytical facility for the quality assessment (proximate analysis) of products/varieties of crop specialists and various institutions of AARI, Faisalabad is carried out as per their requirements

Services

Following are the services offered by the institute:

• Advisory Services to farmers, exporters, extension worker and other entrepreneur regarding post harvest management of fruit & vegetables
• Advisory services through Radio Talk, T.V. talk and other electronic/print media
• Sale of nutritive value added food products at Food Technology Section at minor rates than market e.g., squashes, jams, ketchup

Allied Stations

Food Technology Section, Faisalabad

Objectives

This section has potentially contributed in value addition by developing food products and has trained thousands of human resources both male and female in food processing and preservation techniques. Pilot scale production and sale of various food products is another allied objective, helping to popularize the use of good quality food products among the masses, as well as to deposit handsome income annually to the government treasury.

Future plans

Food Technology section is working on the value addition of fruits and vegetables and their nutritional and other physicochemical/biochemical aspects. We want to disseminate the developed technology to the farmers for more productivity and easy availability of good quality processed and preserved food to the masses along with increase in export to the foreign exchange.

Research Activities

• Optimization of process for sugarcane juice storage stability
• Standardization of postharvest drying protocol for apricot
• Optimization of guava-aloe vera functional drink  
• Probing the shelf life of fresh cut shredded carrots (daucus carota) via different chemical treatments
• Development and process optimization for the low caloric lemon-barley rts drink
• Effect of chemical preservatives on quality and storage stability of tomato concentrates
• Development and standardization of preservative free value added products from java plum (jamun)
• Quality comparison of animal milk and soy bean milk added products
• Development and optimization of avocado value added products
• Effect of incorporating hydrocolloids on quality attributes of tomato ketchup
• Medicinal value addition  of apple jam
• Development and standardization of fruit cocktail
• Development of kinnow juice concentrates through vacuum concentration technique
• Standardization of dehydration protocol for fig fruit
• Standardization of protocol for raisins production
• Development and optimization of therapeutic herbal turmeric drink

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