Food loss prevention in perishable crops
No hay miniatura disponible
Fecha
Título de la revista
ISSN de la revista
Título del volumen
Editor
Resumen
Descripción
The reduction of post-harvest food losses is a complementary means for increasing food production. This draws its importance not only from a moral obligation to avoid waste, but also because the cost of preventing food losses in general is less than producing a similar additional amount of food of the same quality. Therefore, the concept of food loss prevention, to which attention was drawn by the World Food Conference in 1974, will afford mankind increasingly significant opportunities to meet i ts food requirements. The programmes that have been initiated so far at the international level, amongst which is FAO's Food Loss Prevention Programme, have focused mainly an the durable food grains because of their prominence in the daily diet. The perishable crops, because of their high moisture content, are inherently more liable to deteriorate, especially under tropical conditions. Fruits and vegetables provide basic food and nutritionally essential vitamins and trace elements and, moreover, have an important role in improving food flavour and acceptability. This study, therefore, is concentrated on the perishables of plant origin and endeavours have been made to review the magnitude of losses, the places where they occur and the measures that can be taken to reduce them in the developing countries.