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Short-day onion improvement program in India for producing dehydrated products

G.G.Adsul, A.V.Dhake, R.M.Kothari

Onions are preferred all over the world as vegetable, salad and accompaniment of food, being eaten fresh, dehydrated, frozen, pickled, stewed, roasted and fried in different shapes and sizes for taste and flavor in several preparations at home and recipes of processed foods in industry, besides recent therapeutic use as nutraceuticals. Desirable attributes of onions for dehydration industry are given along with a schematic diagramfor dehydration. The emergent dehydrated onion products are displayed along with their nutrient composition and specifications for permissible level of microbial contaminants to ensure safety of human beings after consumption. Significance of high TSS, flavor and pungency is narrated, highlightingmethods of TSS and pyruvic acid estimation. On this background short-day onions are discussed, being the prevalent variety in India for local consumption and export, in the context of state-wise productivity, year-wise export volumes vis-à-vis realization, heterogeneity of cultivars and factors influencing their size, pungency, bolting and doubling are given, which are likely to influence their varietal improvement programin India. Thus, this brief review sets a stage focusing on constraints in improvement and targeted parameters desired fromimprovement.