The continuing increase in the standard of living has brought with it a marked trend towards the use of processed vegetables, especially those which are prepared and require little or no attention before serving. This has been particularly marked in frozen foods and more recently dried foods, including accelerated freeze dried products.

The customer demands products which are of a consistently high quality and the food industry is therefore concerned with the purchase of crops of a very high standard in order to produce consistent products for sale. This creates a demand for produce which is free from blemish, pest and disease effects. It also necessitates crops being harvested at the optimum time and any one crop should be as uniformly mature as is possible.