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Fruits and vegetables are an integral part of our diet attributed to their appealing taste, flavor, and health-promoting characteristics. However, due to their high-water activity, they are susceptible to microbial spoilage and diseases at any step in the food supply chain, from pre-harvest treatment to post-harvest storage and transportation. As a result, food researchers and engineers are developing innovative technologies that can be used to reduce the loss of fruits and vegetables on-farm and during postharvest processing. The purpose of this study was to gather and discuss the scientific data on the disease-suppressive activity of nanoparticles against plant pathogens. The progress and limitations of innovative approaches for improving nanoparticles' efficiency and dependability have been studied to develop effective substitutes for synthetic chemical fungicides and pesticides, in managing disease in fruits and vegetables. The findings of this study strongly suggests that nanotechnology has the required ability for disease suppression in fruits and vegetables. Applications of specific nanoparticles under specified conditions can enhance nutrition delivery to plants, provide better antibacterial and disease suppression activity. Nanoparticles can also lessen the quantity of agrichemicals/metals released into the environment as compared to standard formulations, which is one of the most impressive advances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correlation between physical properties of Popped Makhana (variety: Sabour‐1 Makhana) such as tri‐axial dimensions, spatial diameters, projected areas, volumes and mass may aid in predicting pops quality besides fabrication of post‐harvest machinery. Hence, the present work aims to predict the mass of Makhana pops as a function of its physical attributes using nonlinear mathematical models. Depending upon high variation in mass data (0.19–0.46 g), pops were categorized into small, medium and large groups presented with suitable mass models. The medium mass group (MMG) was found dominating since 70% of the overall selected samples belonged to this group approaching ellipsoid. Quadratic model was recommended to predict mass for MMG based on tri‐axial dimension thickness (T), R2 = 0.806; spatial diameter (Dg), R2 = 0.898; projected area (PT2), R2 = 0.873; and ellipsoidal volume (Vellip), R2 = 0.895, respectively. Further investigation comprised of various physical, aerodynamic, gravimetric, frictional, color, and mechanical properties. The mean surface area, true volume, and bulk porosity of pops were 881.37 mm2, 2,446.96 mm3, and 25.49%, respectively. The sphericity, aspect ratio, elongation, and flakiness ratio were determined as 0.85, 0.90, 1.12, and 0.79, respectively. Terminal velocity for pops and its associated drag force were obtained as 6.82 ms−1 and 3.12 × 10−5 N, respectively. Galvanized aluminium sheet offered both lower angle of inclination and coefficient of static friction (11.53°, 0.20). L* (64.39) and whiteness index (59.95) values indicated "opaque white" tone. For lower measure of cohesiveness (0.38) and resilience (0.14), higher gumminess (21.80) was obtained along with bowl‐life texture. Practical Applications: Popped Makhana is a light, voluminous, traditionally expanded pseudocereal consumed as breakfast cereal or roasted snack. It involves labor intensive manual grading, bag filling, weighing, packaging in various sizes, etc., resisting its consumer acceptability, export promotion and domestic consumption as well. Appropriate grading could be efficiently achieved by mass modeling tool, establishing the relation between physical quantities and mass. Mass based grading is economically superior than size grading, slashing grading time, packaging and material handling costs. Mass based mathematical modeling optimizes packaging formations and reduces volume for low transportation cost to distance places for product development. The assessment of projected area for mass prognosis outlines usage of single camera as the vital part of grading system, ensuring economic feasibility. Thus, research was inducted to investigate mass modeling of Popped Makhana based on the selected engineering attributes to develop an automatic grading system based on combined approach of mass and size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian coffee plum (Flacourtia jangomas) is an underutilized fruit with many great nutritional and medicinal value generally available in the northeastern part of India. Although rheological study of different fruit pulps have been studied till now, however no such study has been undertaken on Indian coffee plum. The present study was aimed to evaluate the steady-state shear and viscoelastic rheological properties of Flacourtia jangomas (F. jangomas) pulp as function of temperature in the range 20 to 80°C using dynamic oscillatory viscometry, as well as applicability of Cox-Merz rule. Under steady-state shear tests, the shear stress versus shear rate data were adequately fitted to the Bingham model (R2 = 1) for too low shear rate (0.1to 1.0 s−1) and Power law model (R2 > 0.83) for moderate shear rate (1.0 to 100 s−1). Oscillatory shear data of the fruit pulp showed weak gel behavior where loss modulus exceeded the value of storage modulus. The power modified Cox-Merz rule was tested for all temperature and found applicable for lower temperatures. These results could be beneficial for future studies on food properties and industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

is an underutilized fruit of India frequently found in the Barak valley of Assam and nearby areas of the north-eastern part of the country. It has good medicinal, nutritional and economic value. The research was conducted to investigate the physical, mechanical, biochemical and thermal properties of the fruit and to determine the mass modeling of the fruit depending on its various dimensional attributes. Models like S-curve, Power and Quadratic models were used to predict the mass of the fruit. It was found that mass could be predicted best when models were based on length, thickness and volume. The quadratic and power models showed the best relation between the mass and dimensional parameters of the fruit. The physicochemical characterization and mass modeling of the Indian coffee plum fruit would help in the design and development of various processing, handling, and storage equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]