: Scientist’s Low Cost Innovation Extends Shelf-Life of Fruits Veggies up to 10 Days #IndiaNEWS #Innovation In India, 30-40 per cent of perishable agricultural harvest like fruits and vegetables

@IndiaNEWS

Posted in: #IndiaNEWS

Scientist’s Low Cost Innovation Extends Shelf-Life of Fruits Veggies up to 10 Days #IndiaNEWS #Innovation
In India, 30-40 per cent of perishable agricultural harvest like fruits and vegetables goes to waste every year. The wastage begins right from the harvest, to improper storage facilities, transportation and retail shops or markets. Sometimes after purchase, the agri produce can get spoilt at home before consumption. This leads to losses over thousands of crores in the agricultural industry.
A study by the International Society for Horticulture Science explains that the primary reason for this is the lack of cold storage facilities which are not accessible to all farmers.
To bridge this gap and provide farmers with a cheaper alternative, Dr Jagadis Gupta Kapungati, a scientist at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research (an autonomous institute of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India) has come up with a device named — ‘Shelf life enhancer’.
“It is an energy-efficient and a cheaper alternative to cold storage facilities. The device is expected to reduce the post-harvest losses in storage and transportation by allowing fruits and vegetables to ripen slowly. Through research we have also identified that the device can enhance the nutrient composition in the fruits and vegetables,� says Dr Jagadis in an interview with The Better India.
Dr Jagadis and his team of researchers
Workings of The Shelf Life Enhancer
Researchers have exposed small amounts of nitric oxide to fruits and vegetables in the past. They identified that it slows down the respiration rate of the fruits and vegetables, and reduces the production of ethylene, which is the chemical produced during the ripening process.
“After continued research, I have developed a first-of-its-kind formula that can generate low amounts of nitric oxide from natural resources such as leaves. This includes mango, banana, curry leaves, lettuce among others,� claims Dr Jagadis.
In 2019, after coming across the reports about agricultural wastage in the country, he decided to create a device that could release nitric oxide in small amounts and store the produce.
Funded by the Biotechnology Industrial Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), and incubated at the FITT, Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, the prototype of the ‘Shelf life enhancer’ was made using polyacrylic material, wood and plastic. Two chambers—one smaller than the other—were created to store the formula to produce nitric oxide and to place the fruits or vegetables. From the small chamber the nitric oxide is directed into the larger chamber in limited amounts.
Pineapples placed in the Shelf life enhancer
“We conducted tests using bananas, mango, pineapple, chikoos, custard apples, tomatoes and other perishables.

Intraday stocks under 50 NSE India Twitter of India

Vote Up Vote Down

Login to post a comment!