6 hydration of Vegetables The vegetable cultivars quoted in the following process data are, in the main, those bred in temperate climates, the USA and Western Europe and, in the case of pulses, the Antipodes. However, with the growth of dehydration in the developing countries, with tropicalorsubtropicalclimates, theseregions, along with Eastern Europe, Egypt and China, who have had a dehydration industry for many years, have, through their Horticultural Institutes and Ministries of Agriculture, developed indigenous varieties which have been processed with considerable success It may not be possible to identify all these varieties but in the author experience, great assistance has been afforded by the field officers working with these Horticultural Institutes in setting up field and seed trials for the benefit of processors, and they are becoming increasingly knowledgeable in the characteristics required in vegetables for processing uiredy have afforded, also, valuable in formation on the infrastructure required for setting up a processing plant, along with the disposition of labour, local building requirements for food factories and the pattern of irrigation practice e processes set out assume an intermediate size operation with a reasonable measure of automation but, of course, in each case the throughput may be cut down to meet capital budgeting requirements, and whilst most of the preparation plant is geared to a raw throughput of some 1.5 to 3 tonnes per hour of prepared material or 300 to 350 tonnes of raw produce per week, adjustments can obviously be made, introducing more hand labour6 Dehydration of Vege ta b I es The vegetable cultivars quoted in the following process data are, in the main, those bred in temperate climates, the USA and Western Europe and, in the case of pulses, the Antipodes. However, with the growth of dehydration in the developing countries, with tropical or subtropicalclimates, these regions, along with Eastern Europe, Egypt and China, who have had a dehydration industry for many years, have, through their Horticultural Institutes and Ministries of Agriculture, developed indigenous varieties which have been processed with considerable success. It may not be possible to identify all these varieties but in the author’s experience, great assistance has been afforded by the field officers working with these Horticultural Institutes in setting up field and seed trials for the benefit of processors, and they are becoming increasingly knowledgeable in the characteristics required in vegetables for processing. They have afforded, also, valuable information on the infrastructure required for setting up a processing plant, along with the disposition of labour, local building requirements for food factories and the pattern of irrigation practices. The processes set out assume an intermediate size operation with a reasonable measure of automation but, of course, in each case the throughput may be cut down to meet capital budgeting requirements, and whilst most of the preparation plant is geared to a raw throughput of some 1.5 to 3 tonnes per hour of prepared material or 300 to 350 tonnes of raw produce per week, adjustments can obviously be made, introducing more hand labour in 121