Knowledge and Use of Preservation of Fruits

The present study was made with an objective to find out the knowledge and use of preservatives in fruits and vegetables. The investigation was carried out in four villages of Ramnagar and Bhimtal Panchayat Samiti of Nainital district of Uttarakhand state, covering 100 rural women. Interview schedule was developed by the investigators for data collection. Frequency and percentage were used for analysis of data for present study. The results indicated that rural women had knowledge about the importance of fruit and vegetable in human diet whereas 62 per cent of the respondents did the preservation due its availability in off season. Majority of the respondents used oil and salt as a preservative (75%) whereas 76 per cent respondents used clean and dry containers for preparing items and 85 per cent of the respondents did not use the food items during menses time.