Flavor and compositional quality are the ultimate criterion of the desirability of any food product. The nutritive value of any peanut product is closely associated with the fatty acid composition of its oil content, which influences its quality. Peanut butter was prepared using seven groundnut varieties commonly grown in major groundnut producing states of India. The flavor and compositional quality were determined using the standard procedures. The color code to the butter preparation was assigned by visually comparing the color of the butter with those given in the handbook of standard colors. On the basis of a combined evaluation, it could be recommended that the groundnut variety Somnath is the best-suited variety for producing peanut butter amongst the selected varieties.

The design of equipment for harvesting, separating, cleaning, handling and storing of any agricultural commodity is influenced by its physical and mechanical properties. The physical properties and mechanical behaviour of turmeric rhizome were determined at different moisture content (6, 8 and 10 % on wet basis) under laboratory conditions. It was observed that physical properties increased linearly with increase in moisture content of rhizome such as length (54.46±8.45 to 55.79±8.61 mm), breadth (12.48±1.61 to 13.21±1.13 mm), thickness (11.32±1.41 to 11.65±1.00 mm), bulk density (555±0.84 to 563±2.54 kg/m 3 ), true density (1337±2.91

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The use-up outline for convenient and RTE (ready to eat) snacks is rising with expressive pace in all over the world because of rise in time spent away from home (Omoba, 2013). Consumers nowadays are becoming more and more conscious about concept of convenient and hygienic snacks. Extrudates are one of the major growing commodities in snack foods. Nowadays, children and even adults have started liking and consuming extrudates. The extrudates made by using extrusion process are the very proficient technique for manufacturing plentiful foodstuffs like RTE as well as animal food. Extrusion syndicates elevated shear force and temperature to develop extrudates in preferred size and shape as well as porous structure. The basic raw ingredients of extrudates include cereal grains which has less protein and essential amino acid (Nikmaram et al., 2015). In this context, efforts were made by researchers in preceding works about alteration of basic ingredients with different protein sources to improve the nutritious quality of cereals-based extrudates (Awolu et al., 2020;

Abstract. 'Talaja Red' onion grown in Mahuva Taluka of Bhavnagar district of Gujarat was stored in natural and forced ventilated storage structure to investigate changes in bulb quality and its storability after three months of storage period. Standard procedures were followed in determining the weight loss and assessment of disease of bulbs. Average per cent weight losses were found to be 23.74 and 10.24 percent under natural and forced ventilated storage, respectively. The reduction in percent intensity of black mold in forced ventilated storage varied from 25.15 to 31.48 percent whereas it increased in natural ventilated storage up to 39.01 percent. Soft rot was reduced from 10.79 percent intensity to 3.43 percent intensity under natural and forced ventilated storage, respectively. All the bulbs were infected by black mold in natural ventilated storage whereas 86 percent bulbs were infected in forced ventilated storage. The best results were obtained when onion was stored in forced ventilated storage structure for three months.Keywords: Onion storage, bulb disease, weight loss, black mold, soft rot. IntroductionOnion (Allium cepa L.) is an important spice vegetable crop, grown almost all over the country, which is seasonal in production, but required round the year [13]. Onion is liked and valued throughout the world for its characteristic flavour, taste and pungency. Storage is an important aspect of post-harvest management. The main objective of onion storage is to extend their period of availability. The primary purpose of storage is to arrest the metabolic breakdown and microbial deterioration. The onion is low perishable crop, yet considerable deterioration may occur during storage due to rotting, sprouting, and physiological weight loss and storage losses could be as high as 66% [3]. Hence considerable losses will occur during marketing leading post-harvest diseases [5]. The production of onion in Pakistan is generally surplus and the growers temporarily store their produce in field, under shelters, sheds and rooms under ambient conditions, which increase post-harvest rots and decrease quality [8]. It was reported that during off-season the efficient storage facility for onion plays an important role for the consumers as well as for the producers which ultimately prevents serious losses due to rotting and sprouting [15]. There are different types of storage structures used in different parts of the country. Most of these structures lack in proper ventilation resulting in higher storage losses. The poor aeration and air movement resulted in rise of storage temperature, which in turn adversely affected the product storage physiology and pathology. The natural ventilation existing in the commercial onion storage structures did not remove the heat and moisture from the pile of the onion bulbs stored. This resulted in higher storage losses. The forced air ventilation system has a great scope in reducing the storage losses in case of bulk storage of onion [13]. The storage life of onion is dependent on the cu...

The investigation was intended to examine the influence of selected moisture levels (4.26, 12.66, 25.31, 37.89, 50.21% wet basis) on engineering properties namely, dimensional, gravimetric, frictional, aerodynamic as well as mechanical properties of five selected varieties of sesame seed namely GT‐3, GT‐4, GJT‐5, GT‐6, and TKG 22. The investigation finds out that fluctuations in moisture level significantly (p ≤ 0.05) influenced the engineering properties assessed. Increase in moisture content influenced a rise in length, width, thickness, geometric mean diameter, arithmetic mean diameter, sphericity, volume, volumetric expansion coefficient, elongation ratio, flakiness ratio, surface area, projected area, thousand seeds weight, compressibility index, Hausner ratio, angle of repose, coefficient of friction, terminal velocity and Reynolds number of selected sesame verities. Whereas, a reverse trend was observed in aspect ratio, true density, bulk density, tapped densities, drag coefficient, and hardness with moisture content variation. The frictional characteristic of the seed showed improved stability with less flow ability at higher moisture levels. These outcomes disclosed that variation of seed moisture content is authoritative during designing and construction of machinery and process equipment related to sesame. It may be also beneficial in computation of design for hoppers, silos, conveyors, drying, and heat transfer equipment as well as other sesame seed‐related process and handling equipment.

Abstract.Onion is an important vegetable crop throughout the world. Its storage is difficult hence, it is dehydrated for value addition. Osmotic dehydration is one of the options for dehydration of onion. The effect of chemical pretreatments to onion slices using calcium chloride (CaCl2) and potassium metabisulphite (KMS) prior to osmotic dehydration was examined by dipping the onion slices in the respective chemical solution. Optimization of chemical pretreatments prior to osmotic dehydration of onion slices was carried out using RSM. CaCl2 concentration had significant effect at 5% level on water loss. Pretreatment combination of 3.00% CaCl2 and 0.20% KMS concentration resulted maximum water loss (43.07%) while, Pretreatment combination of 1.00% CaCl2 and 0.20% KMS concentration resulted minimum solid gain. Similarly, maximum weight loss (37.94%) was found for pretreatment combination of 2.00% CaCl2 concentration and 0.30% KMS concentration and minimum moisture content (48.89%) was found in pretreatment combination of 2.00% CaCl2 and 0.30% KMS. The chemical pretreatment prior to osmotic dehydration of Talaja Red onion slices was optimized with combination of 3.00% CaCl2 and 0.15% KMS.

Emulsifiable concentrate of indoxacarb (KN 128 15 EC) was evaluated at different doses for its field bio-efficacy in comparison with endosulfan 0.07 per cent (conventional insecticide) against Helicoverpa armigera (Hubner) hardwick on pigeonpea during 2003-04 and 2004-05. Different doses of indoxacarb 15 EC (KN 128) found to be more or less dose related. However, the indoxacarb 15 EC @ 50 g.a.i/ha was most effective for the control of pod borer followed by 60 g.a.i/ha. These doses also recorded significant higher grain yield during both the year (1753 and 1652 kg/ha), respectively.