MINIMIZE AND PREVENTING NUTRIENTS LOSSES IN FOOD PROCESSING

 Introduction

The food that we prepare should be palatable as well as nutritive. Neither of these qualities can be sacrificed at the cost of the other. However, to accomplish a correct balance is not an easy task. There are certain facts we must keep in mind, and certain general rules that we must follow to come as close to a perfect balance of nutritional quality and palatability as we can.

Preventing Nutrients Losses

Some of the vitamins-the water soluble ones are easy to loose. They get lost in the water we use for preparing or cooking, by exposure to sunlight and air, and by prolonged heating. Some of the rules to observe in processing and cooking food so that there is minimum loss, if any at all nutrients in our foods are as follows:-

1. Wash vegetables before cutting.

2. Cook vegetable on low flames with as far as possible no water and keep them covered while cooking.

3. Do not overcook.

4. Cook rice just as much water as it needs to cook. Do not use extra water which needs to be thrown away.

5. Cut fruits just when you are ready to eat them.

6. Use acid foods, such as lime juice, tomato, vinegar, or curd in salads. It helps to retain the vitamin C value of the salad item.

Measures to Avoid Wastage

Wastage of food can occur at any stage of operation from harvesting of food material to its consumption. Almost 10% of our cereal crop in our country is wasted at the farm level. If this is so non perishable crops, the wastage must be very much higher in case of semi-perishable and perishable food items.

There can be wastage of food at two stages:-

a). At the level of producer 

b). At the level of consumer

Points of wastage at the level of producer

Farm→ transportation→ sale→ distribution→ godown/market

Points of wastage at the level of consumer

Preparing of food items for processing/cooking→ serving the food to family members→ use of stored leftover food items.

We as consumer has very little control over methods adopted to eliminate or minimize wastage before the food comes to us as a commodity we have purchased. However, from that point onwards, it is in our hands to prevents further wastage.

Some measures can ne adopted in order to avoid wastage of food at home:-

1. Plan meals in advance for at least one week's meal. Plan your meal preparation for the week keeping the meal plan in mind.

2. Use leftover as early as possible.

3. Check your store to see what is already there before you make the market list. Use food items that are likely to spoil first.

4. Buy the correct amount needed, thus being assured of enough food for meals and no food wastage. Particular attention must be given in this respect of foods that cannot be stored adequately by you and must, therefore, be consumed.

5. Review your next day meal plans at the end of the previous day so that, if necessary, you can alter them to take care of any new development in your family's plans or to use the leftover foods you had not expected to be there.

Conclusion

We all know that food is our basic need of our lives we cannot think a day without food. Without proper nutrition our body cannot wok properly and these nutrition we gets from food only. It means it is very important to prevent nutritive value of food while cooking or processing.