Food Security - Postharvest, Processing and Quality Assurance of Selected Agro-Industrial Products 

Background and Rational

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for their active and healthy lives (World Food Summit, 1996). The multi-dimensional nature of food security includes food availability, access, utilization and stability.

Food utilization: Utilization of food emerges through adequate diet, clean water, sanitation and health care to reach a state of nutritional well-being where all physiological needs are met. This brings out the importance of non-food inputs to food security.

Food stability: In order for food to be secured, population, households or individuals must have access to adequate food at all times. They should not take risks with loosing access to food as a consequence of sudden shocks, an economic or climatic crisis, or cyclical events, seasonal food insecurity. The concept of stability can therefore refer to both availability and access dimensions of food security. Unfortunately, quite numbers of population in developing countries are facing the stage of food insecurity. In order to achieve success, strategies to eliminate food insecurity have to tackle these underlying causes by combining the efforts of those who work in diverse sectors such as agriculture, nutrition, health, education, social welfare, economics, public works and the environment. At the national level, this means that different ministries or departments need to combine their complementary skills and efforts in order to design and implement integrated cross-sectored initiatives which must interact and be coordinated at the policy level. At the international level, a range of specialized agencies and development organizations must work together as partners in a common effort.

Farmers and food sellers have been concerned about losses since agriculture has begun. Yet the problem of how much food is lost after harvesting to processing, spoilage, insects and rodents, or to other factors takes on greater importance as world food demand grows. Cutting postharvest losses could, presumably, add up a sizable quantity to the global food supplies; thus reducing the need to intensify production in the future. Postharvest technology plays an important role in maintaining quality (appearance, texture, flavor and nutritive value), protecting food safety, and reduce losses (both physical and in market value) between harvest and consumption. Simple, low cost postharvest technologies can often be more appropriate for small volumes, limited resource commercial operations, farmers involved in direct marketing, as well as suppliers to exporters in developing countries. 

Food preservation is the process of treating and handling food to stop or slow down spoilage such as loss of quality, edibility or nutritional value. Preservation usually involves preventing the growth of bacteria, yeasts,fungi, and other micro-organisms. Food preservation also includes processes which inhibit natural discoloration that can occur during food preparation, such as the enzymatic browning reaction in apples after they are cut. Many processes designed to preserve food involve a number of food preservation methods. Maintaining or creating nutritional value, texture and flavor is an important aspect of food preservation, although, historically, some methods drastically altered the character of the food being preserved. In many cases these changes have now come to be seen as desirable qualities such as cheese, yogurt and pickled onions.

Postharvest and food preservation are simple and low cost technologies which appropriate to developing countries to secure food availability, access, use and stability; hence, to enhance food security. Unfortunately, many government officials who dealing with postharvest and/or food preservation in most countries have limited knowledge. In consequence, opportunities for transfer technologies to farmers and processors are limited. Waste of agricultural produces, limited of food supplies and suffering from malnutrition are the result.  It is very important therefore; those government officials are educated to upgrade their capability for transferring technology to people in their country.

This course will review the principle of post harvest, food preservation and quality control. It will discuss approaches to implement appropriate technologies to certain commodity. Particular emphases will be placed on practical and visiting several successful small scale agro-industries. Finally, it will review and evaluate the hierarchy of techniques used for postharvest, preservation and quality control to enhance food security.

Duration: 1 month (in May 2013)

Closing Date for Application: January 31, 2013

Number of Participants    17 persons

Invited Countries: Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, Lao PDR, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, PIF Member Countries Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Cook Island, Solomon Island, Marshall Island, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu, Republic of Seychelles, Senegal, Sri Lanka, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, Vietnam, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Zambia and Thailand

Qualification

Applicants must fulfill the following requirement:

• Be nominated by their respective government;
• Age : less than fifty (50) years old;
• Education : equivalent to a bachelor degree of university/technical college, preferably possess B.Sc. level degree on food science, food engineering, agro-industry, agricultural science, home-economic, biotechnology, agricultural processing, agricultural product development, or have at least 5 years of related work experience;
• Language: proficiency in English (speaking, reading and writing);
• Health must be good in both physically and mentally, each participant should have a health certificate provided by an authorized physician.  This form is also attached together with the Nomination Form. Pregnancy is regarded as a disqualifying condition for participation in the course.

Objectives

The program is designed to :

• provide basic scientific knowledge of the priciples and concepts of postharvest, food preservation, packaging, and quality control
• enhance knowledge and understanding of how to select appropriate technology to maintain food security
• upgrade human capacities in transferring technology to needed party
• promote collaboration, communication and foster a professional network among participants

Course Contents

The program consists of series of lecture, practical and study trip.

I. Lecture and practical outline

• Review of  food security - availability, accessibility, utilization and stability
• Production and postharvest of selected plants and animals for food
• Utilization of  agricultural raw materials for food
• Knowledge for production and preservation of nutritious foods from agricultural raw materials to promote food security for needed population
• Packing of raw materials and food products
• Quality measurement of raw materials and food products including  chemical, physical, microbiological and sensory
• Case studies of how to implement food processing techniques in preservation of vegetable, fruit and fish
• Practicing in processing of selected agricultural raw materials such as peanut, rice and cassava

II. Study trips

• Visiting to the Royal Chitralada project and government agencies to observe activity ralated to postharvest practices and utilization of agricultural raw materials
• Visiting Kasetsart experimental farms to understand on production system of agricultural raw materials prior to utilization
• Visiting private companies related to production and commercialization of agro-industrial products
• Visiting Northeastern Thailand to observe Thai agricultural practices and processing value added products at village scale industries (OTOP)

III. Advanc​e Assignment - Country Report

• Participants will be required to submit country report to the course coordinator at the first day of class as well as to present country report to the class at the second week of training.  

Institution:

The course will be conducted by:

Department of Product Development,
Faculty of Agro - Industry, Kasetsart University, 
Jatujak, Bangkok 10900, Thailand 
Tel: (662) 562-5006, Fax : (662) 562-5005
E-mail : [email protected]
Course Coordinator: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Penkwan Chompreeda
Tel./Fax : (662) 942-8661   
E-mail:  penkhwan.c@ku.ac.th