How to define quality of fruits and vegetables?

Fruits and vegetables are very important by day to-day living. They are valuable sources of vitamin, minerals, fibers, and antioxidants, which are essential for a healthy and well balanced diet.

The demand for all year round supplies, the same fresh quality is desired on a year round basis.

In harvested plant producer, quality is the composite of those characteristics that differentiate individual units of the product and have significant in determining the units’ degree of acceptability to the user.

Consumers prefer to buy fruits and vegetables of high quality based on their appearance, sensory, and nutritive values.

Quality has been defined as “the composite of those characteristics that differentiate individual units of a product, and have significance in determining the degree of acceptability by the buyer”.

The specific qualities required in vegetables will depend on their end-use and the selection of appropriate cultivars for particular products of paramount importance.

External quality characteristics, those that can be perceived by the senses of sight and touch without ingesting the product, are important in product differentiation, particularly in purchase decision and food preparation.

Internal quality characteristics, those that can perceived by the sense of taste, smell, and touch (mouthfeel), combine with the visual appearance in determine acceptability and presumably decision to repurchase that product.

The degree of acceptability of fresh fruits and vegetables and their products is a combination of attributes, properties, or appearances that give each commodity value in terms of human food.

Several factors such as environmental conditions, cultivars, cultural practices, susceptibility to pests and disease, time of harvest and postharvest conditions, determine the quality of these commodities.
How to define quality of fruits and vegetables?

Food Science and Society

Food science is an interdisciplinary field that evolved first from chemistry, then microbiology and medicine.

The subject concerned with all aspects of food, beginning with harvesting or slaughtering and ending with its cooking and consumption.

It is also considered one of the agricultural sciences, and usually considered distinct from the field of nutrition.

The origin of food science is unclear but history reports that Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans were able to preserve a variety of foods on vinegar, brine, honey or pitch.

The earliest development of agriculture change nomadic societies to settles ones, because farming is more readily done on cultivated land that is already used as a farm.

Once the idea farming of the same land conceived, permanent shelter became more practical and the forerunners for modern house were built.

The protection of the house important enough to cause farmer to group together and to establish boundaries, the forerunners of modern day towns and cities were form.

Food has a role in social and familial bonding; typically food offered as a symbol of friendship and in modern dinner parties and lunch clubs are a common means of social exchange.

What has the science done to increase population? In the first place, by machinery, fertilizers and improved breeds it has increased the yield per acre and the yield per man hour of labor.

Food science is responding to present day and expected future health and safety trends. The use of sciences such biotechnology, genetic engineering, computer technology, microbiology and chemistry will allow the food scientist to help bring to the marketplace new foods that will meet the needs and desires of the consumer.

Many opportunities exist to study food assistance programs in terms of the nutritional and health impact on participants and how this impact could be improved.

The discovery and utilization of scientific principles in food sciences, culminating in the preparation, packaging and distribution of process food, have provided a supply of safe, wholesome, and nutritious foods unknown before in history.

Food science will have a great impact at the manufacturing product and consumer levels, resulting in more efficient production of foodstuff and effecting improvements in both quality and “freshness.”

Food-derived bioactive peptides offers the possibility to prevent and treat disease via dietary intervention and could be possibly be developed into drugs.

There was a study suggest that dietary intervention with diet high in dairy foods, fruits and vegetables is an effective means of lowering blood pressure and hence prevent cardiovascular diets.

The multifactor nature of food is considered in the production of high quality, safe, nutritious food. Food science has been an integral part of society, The contribution of food scientists to the global world food supply is immense.
Food Science and Society