Review on post-harvest handling to reduce loss of fruits and vegetables

Abstract

Fruits and vegetables are the perishable agricultural commodities. Harvesting of pre-matured and over-matured fruits results in shorter storage life and quality deterioration. Thus the fruits should be harvested at proper stage of maturity for good quality with better storage. Vegetables on other hand can be harvested at horticultural maturity. However, poor handling method of produce has resulted to a serious post-harvest loss, loss of time and money spend. Unavailability of suitable handling processes and chemical treatment are triggering huge amount of loss of commodities. Hence, producers are suffering from great economic loss due to lack of proper handling methods, lack of nature and cause of postharvest loss and proper preservation methods. However, loss can be minimized by subejecting produce to proper management and handling procedure such as cleaning, grading and sorting, storage, transportation and marketing. Pre-harvest and postharvest treatment with certain chemicals also extends the shelf life of commodities by preventing from harmful pathogens and from contamination. The data were collected from different relevant sources and has been described in own words. Consequently, this paper suggests the postharvest handling of fruits and vegetables in such a way to reduce post-harvest loss and increase the availability of produce. Introduction Horticultural commodities harvested prematurely results in poor quality and such commodities deteriorate much faster than that is harvested at the proper stage of maturity. On the other hand, harvesting beyond optimum maturity results in shorter storage life. Thus the fruits should be harvested at proper stage of maturity for good quality with better storage. The processes carried out immediately following harvesting including cooling, cleaning, sorting, grading, packaging, transportation are postharvest handling processes. At all stages of postharvest handling, there is significant loss in both quality and quantity of perishable commodities. Increase in shelf life, maintenance of quality and minimization of undesirable changes are the main goals of postharvest horticulture. Preservation of original quality of the fruits or vegetables is the best possible outcome achieved in post-harvest handling process. (Toivonen, J, & Terry, 2014) [24] .