Value Addition and Processing Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The key gives stainless steel. Stainless steel mesh is rust-proof, easy to wash and does not take up food flavours, so it is the usual tray screen for sun drying of vegetables. I could not find a source comparing all four options, so the choice rests on the official key.

Jute gunny bag and a wooden dowel are not suited to spreading vegetable slices because they absorb moisture and are hard to clean, and Teflon coated fibreglass is a more specialised screen used where food must not stick.

Answer: B

The key gives kiln drier. Apple slices or rings are dried in a kiln drier, a heated chamber with a perforated floor through which hot air rises.

An air convection drier, a cabinet drier and a tunnel drier are also used for fruit, but the key's answer for apple slices is the kiln.

A kiln drier is a heated chamber with a slatted floor over a furnace, and sliced fruit spread on the floor is dried by the rising warm air. It has long been used for apple slices and rings.

Answer: A

The first commercial use of microwave energy in food processing was in drying potato chips: microwave energy was used for finish drying of potato chips. This is the key's answer.

Carrot, oyster mushroom and turmeric are not the product for which microwave drying was first used commercially.

Microwaves heat the moisture inside the food directly, so they are most useful for the last stage of drying, when conventional hot air dries slowly. Potato chips were the first commercial case.

Answer: A

Marmalade is prepared from citrus fruit, here sweet orange and mandarin orange. It is a jelly or jam with shreds of peel, made by boiling the fruit pulp and peel with sugar.

Mango, banana, papaya and bael are used for jams, pulps and squashes, not marmalade.

Marmalade is a jelly or jam of citrus fruit that contains pieces of peel, and the pectin in the peel and pulp of orange helps it set. Oranges and mandarin oranges therefore make a typical marmalade.

Answer: C

The key gives green bean for shade drying. Shade drying is used for produce that would lose colour, flavour or vitamins in direct sun, such as leafy and green vegetables and beans, whereas roots such as cassava and colocasia are sun dried after slicing. I could not find a source comparing the four options, so the choice rests on the key.

Potato slices are also usually dried in the sun or by drier, so they do not go with shade drying.

Answer: D

Byssochlamys fulva is the mould that mostly spoils canned fruits. Its spores resist heat, survive the canning process and grow in the low-oxygen can, breaking down the fruit.

Penicillium, Aspergillus and Mucor are common moulds on fresh fruit but are killed by canning heat.

Byssochlamys makes heat-resistant spores that survive canning of acid fruits, and it can grow at low oxygen levels. It breaks down pectin, making the fruit soft and mushy, which is why it is the typical spoilage mould in canned fruit.

Answer: C

Asepsis means preventing the entry of microbes. An aseptic technique keeps the work, the container and the product free of contamination from the beginning.

Killing microbes by chemicals is disinfection, by heat or other physical means is sterilisation, and by radiation is irradiation, so the other options describe other processes.

Asepsis is the absence of unwanted microbes in the work place and the product, and it is obtained by keeping them out. Sterilisation and disinfection kill microbes that are already present.

Answer: D

The step is installing the aluminium foil reflection surface. In a parabolic solar dryer the strings are pulled tightly across the laminated parabolas at intervals of 2.5 to 7.5 cm so that the foil can be laid on them and supported.

I could not find a source for the construction instructions, so this rests on the key.

The strings across the parabolas support the aluminium foil that reflects sunlight onto the drying tray. The step is installing the reflection surface.

Answer: C

Blanching is necessary before drying vegetables. The vegetable is dipped in boiling water or steam for a short time, which stops enzyme action, keeps colour and speeds drying.

Colouring and brining are not needed for drying, and ‘cheering’ is not a food treatment.

Blanching also removes some of the air in the tissue and softens it, so drying is faster and the product is better when it is soaked again. Brining is used for pickles.

Answer: A

Kalipak is a processed product of arecanut, the key's answer. I could not find a source describing the product, so this rests on the official key.

Coffee, coconut and cocoa have their own well-known products and are not given by the key for kalipak. The arecanut is the seed of the areca palm, which is also the nut chewed with betel leaf.