Technical Article

1. Facts & Opportunities on Food
Losses and Food Safety
Mr. Avesahemad Sayyadnaimutulla Husainy
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
SITCOE, Yadrav- Ichalkaranji, Maharashtra, India
Member of ISHRAE and ASHRAE, Ph.D. Research Scholar Shivaji University, Kolhapur
Dr. Gajanan V. Parishwad
Principal, PCCOE, Pune, Maharashtra, India
Member of ASHRAE, Member of ISTE, Member of IOE, Member of ISME

2. Food, Cloths and Shelter is basic need all human being. Food is
necessary and priority of all human being in order to survive.
Everyone has to right to eat safety, healthy and nutritious food. But even
though one in ten people in the globe get ill and affected by eating un
healthy food.
If food is not safe then there is no food safety. And it will hamper
food chain sustainability and pride of nation.
In food chain in every step viz, Purchasing commodities from farmers,
processing, transportation, storage and distribution to consumer food
safety is important.
Now a days climate change and global warming is a serious issue
and adverse effect of climate change are responsible to keep food
in healthy condition.
India is an agricultural dominated country so most of the income is
produced from agricultural chain. Agricultural process and food chain
play important role in improving GDP.
In globe, India plays important role in production of milk, fruits and vegetables.
India is the world largest producer of milk and its related product and
contributes more than 165 MT in the year 2017-18.
Also India is second largest in producing fruits around 10% in the globe and
vegetables 12% in the globe. 2.1$ trillion, India is the world's 3rd largest
economy after the US and China. India has reported 150 million cubic meters
of refrigerated warehousing in 2018, maintaining the position of the largest
total capacity among the countries.

3. Children under 5 years of age carry
40 percent of the foodborne disease
burden, with 125 000 deaths every year.
Foodborne illnesses are usually
infectious or toxic in nature and caused
by bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical
substances entering the body through
contaminated food or water.
An estimated 600 million people in the
world – almost 1 in 10 – fall ill after eating
contaminated food and 420 000 die every
year.
Recent estimates indicate that the impact of
unsafe food costs low- and middle-income
economies around US$ 95 billion in lost
productivity each year.
Food safety education helps
consumers to make informed and healthy
choices and push for a safer food supply.
Each year, an estimated 700 000 people
die around the globe because of
antimicrobial resistant infections.

4. The first step of cold chain process is
procurement commodities from the
former. Then commodities are then to
be stored in precooling/cold storage
centres through transportation facility
over long distance. So the refrigeration
facility is important in case of
transportation facility in order to
maintain the shelf life of commodities
like fruits, vegetables, milk, meat, etc.
In cold storage commodities is stored
for longer duration time in controlled
temperature and then as per
requirement and demand it is supply
to next process. Also in processing unit
sorting, grading and packaging is done.
And from processing unit commodities
is to be sending to export or send to
retailers through transportation
facility. In this case also care must be
taken to maintain the controlled
ambient in the transportation trucks.
Once the products are reached to
retailers then end user will take
benefit of it. Also it is necessary to
make provision of refrigeration facility
like freezers, chest freezers in order to
preserve the products for longer
duration of time from retailer side.
Cold Chain

5. Tips to keep Food Safe
Grow safe
(Improvement in Pre
Harvesting techniques
with Organic Farming)
Ensure
Food is safe
(Care must be taken from
consumer side about food
safety and nutrients)
Minimize Post Harvesting
Losses
(Focus on Controlled
temperature storage,
preservation technique)
Reduce Losses in Cold
Chain
(Minimize losses during
processing and
transportation)
Adopt good practices of
food storage and Drying
(Adopt thermal storage for
preservation of food during
power outage and Solar drying
techniques)
Awareness about food
safety and Personal Care
(Run Food Safety Campion
and ensure about personal
care before eating)

6. FoodSafetyandRefrigeration
andPrecautions
High Risk food must be kept at Freezer section
Keep Your Refrigerator space between 5 to 8 degree
Freeze any refrigerated items that you don’t need
immediately e.g. leftovers, milk, fresh meat or poultry.
Have a cooler filled with ice on hand to transfer food from
the fridge or freezer to help keep food longer if the power
is off more than 4 hours.
Minimize Frequency of Opening and Closing the door
in order to minimize temperature fluctuations
Adopt Thermal energy storage for preservation of food
for longer duration of time even though power outage
exists.
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7. Though India is in the stage of developing country, power outage is serious issue for
refrigeration industry. The one of the important stage of post-harvesting technique is
storage of commodities like fruits, vegetables, milk and meat in cold storage and
supply it to retailer’s through refrigeration transportation. Also in case of retailer
point of view they are using refrigerators, chest freezers, deep freezers, bulk coolers,
etc. for preservation and storing commodities.
Thermal energy storage by phase change material absorb cooling effect during
compressor charging process and stored energy is utilized during temperature
fluctuations produced due to power outage and frequency of opening and closing
the door of freezers.
Use of phase change material helps to maintain constant temperature for longer
duration of time even though power is cut off. Also it prolonged the compressor ON-
OFF time due to that electricity consumption reduces. Phase change materials is
used as a thermal storage in various applications like cold storage, transportation
trucks, temporary storage unit, pre-cooler, bulk cooler, deep freezer/chest freezer,
chillers, domestic refrigerators and commercial refrigerators, etc.
Using Phase Change Materials (PCM) as a latent heat thermal energy storage (TES)
system could be a new option for food storage purpose. Phase Change material is the
one of the most studied nowadays for the improvement of storage ability of food
storages.
PCM Sheets
Thermal Storage
Opportunity to store fruits, vegetables, milk, etc.

8. Roll of Solar Drying Technology in Post-
Processing process to avoid Food Losses
(SOURCES: Department of Agriculture Cooperation and
Farmers Welfare)
Food is one of the important needs of
human being in the globe. India is
agricultural dominant country in south
Asia region, India produce variety of
grains, fruits, vegetables, leafy
commodities. The world as a whole
more than 25-30 % food grains and 30-
50 % vegetables, fruits etc. is damaged
before they reach to the consumers. In
south Asian countries, sun drying is the
foremost commonly utilized strategy to
dry the rural materials grains, food
products and vegetables. Dehydration
preserves food in a stable and safe
condition by reducing water activity,
extending the shelf life much longer
than that of fresh produce.
Drying equipment may be classified in
several ways.
The three modes of drying are:
• Open Sun Drying,
• Direct Solar Drying,
• Indirect Solar,
• Mixed Mode
Top 5 fruits Producing States
Top 5 Vegetables Producing States

9. “Food safety, everyone’s business”
There is no food security without food safety