Deviser:  Nguyen Duy Lam

Topic: New technology solutions for the preservation of fruits, agricultural products

According to statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the area planning vegetables and fruits reach about 1.4 million ha with harvested 6.5 million tones of fruit and 9.6 million tones of vegetables each year to domestic and export consumers.

However, fruits and vegetables after harvest are not properly maintained which leads to decline, losses and causes significant losses to farmers at the rate of about 20% of total production.

 Actually there are some storage technologies fruits and vegetables are applied after harvest; however, these preservations do not hold value outside organoleptic and quality deterioration so they should not be widely applied.

 We need new technology solutions joining hands with farmers to produce quality and high-value exports agricultural products in the near future.

 Since now, the world has developed many techniques for preserving fresh fruits and vegetables in different technology level. All of the methods which have been applied in Viet Nam but a new membrane technology have just been developed recently. Dr. Nguyen Duy Lam and his colleagues have been working on research into the technology.

 Membrane preparations  is a liquid film- emulsion which is sprayed vegetables surface surrounding, when the dry liquid goes away to create a transparent thin film on the surface of fruits and vegetables. This thin film will reduce the possibility of gas exchange, which slows the ripening or aging of the product. Preparations have been Administration food safety (Ministry of Health) certification and quality standards can be used for many different kinds of fruits like oranges, grapefruit, mango, papaya, cucumber, carrots, and watermelon.

 The purpose of the membrane on the vegetables  is to reduce  weight loss and forms due to dehydration, gas exchange (decreased O2, increased CO2) leading to slow respiration, or the aging; improve form thanks to glossy coating; làm chất mang to add some chemical agents against  microbial spoilage vegetables, reduce the mechanical damage during transportation. 

Membrane preparations may be prepared from a variety of different materials such as lipids, resins, polysaccharit, protein and the small number of synthetic polymers. In fact, most of the products are composite materials with at least two or more membrane components having additional additives such as plasticizers, surface active agents, anti-foaming, emulsifying and preservative preparations to protect produces  for a long time . Therefore, almost membrane are made from natural ingredients, non-toxic, in many cases, are the nutrients. Mixing, we can choose many different kinds of fruits depending on the type of fruits to ensure not only efficient storage, but also all the safety food factors.

The main benefits of the development of membrane preserved technology vegetables include: contributing to solve the urgent problems in the field of preservation of fresh vegetables VN being in the lack of storage technology leads to loss higher harvest, or are using an unsafe technology for environment and health. Making changes in the fields of rough-wrought processing, preserving fresh fruits and vegetables, reduce losses, increase storage time for domestic service and for production, increase producers’ income and reduce distributors ‘losses  and consumers of fresh vegetables.