POSTHARVEST QUALITY DECLINE, QUALITY MAINTENANCE AND QUALITY EVALUATION

Fresh fruits are highly perishable and their quality declines rapidly after harvest, especially if proper postharvest handling procedures are not followed.
Changes in colour, texture, nutrition, and flavour all affect the market quality of the fruits.
Fruit tissues are composed of living cells, and continue to respire, metabolise, and lose moisture after harvest.
These processes lead to the deterioration and breakdown of tissues.
Other factors which enhance quality decline are bruising, mechanical injury, physiological disorders, and pathological diseases.
Desirable quality maintenance can be achieved by harvesting fruits at optimal maturity and storing fruits at proper temperature, humidity, and atmosphere.
Good sanitation is also important to reduce losses due to diseases.

Quality evaluation includes measurements of colour, texture, flavour, and nutritional value.
Methods for measuring these quality attributes can be destructive or nondestructive.
Colour can be measured with a colorimeter.
Texture can be assessed by several instruments using puncture, deformation, or shearing methods.
Flavour is usually judged by sensory taste panels, and volatile aroma compounds are analysed by gas chromatography.
Nutritional values are determined by chemical analysis, gas chromatography, or high performance liquid chromatography.
Internal defects can be detected nondestructively by a light transmittance method or nuclear magnetic resonance imaging technique.

International Symposium Effect of Pre- & Postharvest factors in Fruit Storage

C.Y. Wang

Storage, temperature, ripening, respiration, ethylene, refrigeration

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1999.485.54