Aimed to increase utilization of highland vegetables, specially the surplus produce, Dr. Jao-jaop A. Somyden of the Benguet State University (BSU), shared a healthy processing technology through the DA-BAR webinar held on 14 December 2023 via StreamYard and Facebook live.
Dr. Somyden, said that in 2019, 83.6% of the total vegetable production in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) is from Benguet Province. When there is oversupply of these vegetables, the demand and price drop significantly. This surplus production becomes a problem resulting in wastage.
Through the webinar, Dr. Somyden and the team from the BSU, in collaboration with DA-CAR, have developed an alternative way of processing selected highland vegetables like carrots, beans, broccoli, and cabbage through the application of vacuum frying technology.
Processed vegetables in the market are mostly vegetable chips and noodles, wherein only 20-30% vegetables are used either for coloring or as flavor enhancer and 70-80% flour. Though earning, these products utilize minimal vegetables only as compared to the surplus produced by farmers.
Korean’s kimchi is one vegetable product which uses a lot of baguio pechay or chinese cabbage and is making higher income to both farmers and processors.
One of the unexplored technologies which may be applied to vegetables is dehydration. Frying, where moisture is replaced by oil, is one of these dehydration methods. Conventional frying is carried out at temperature near 190 degrees Celsius using a frying pan or electric deep fat frying. Though fried products appeal to consumers, oiliness becomes a concern.
There is another type of frying introduced called vacuum frying using a specialized equipment and is carried out under pressure below atmospheric level. Vacuum-fried products have better quality-higher retention of nutrients, natural color is enhanced, and less oily.
Dr. Somyden explained the vacuum frying process starting from the equipment used and then the process: a) washing and slicing or cutting of vegetables to its appropriate size and weight; b) blanching vegetables in boiling water at a right length of time; c) then soaking into cold water and draining; d) to reduce the moisture content of vegetables, partial drying is done in a dryer or centrifuge; e) arrange vegetables loosely in plastic pouches at 500 grams each; f) store in freezer for 2 days; g) vacuum fried at proper pressure and length of time; h) de-oil vegetable by centrifugation under pressure and atmospheric pressure; i) cool vacuum fried vegetables to ambient temperature; and j) finally, pack 50 gram each of vacuum fried vegetable in resealable aluminum foil pouches and seal using multi-functional band sealer.
“If desired, we can also put flavoring in our chips, like cheese, salted egg, and barbeque, which we tried, and received higher market acceptability during a market test. The vegetables were subjected to microbial analysis and showed no microbial growth for 120 days or three months,” said Somyden.
She concluded that the established vacuum frying processing technology for selected highland vegetables will help ease the burden of surplus produce by farmers and may serve as guide to interested agripreneurs in the production of new products and utilization of glut highland vegetables.