Postharvest Handling And Storage of Cut Flowers Florist Greens And Potted Plants

This edited volume provides insight into temperate fruits, with an emphasis on postharvest physiology, storage, packaging and technologies for maintaining fruit quality. Chapters are devoted to individual fruits and focus on fundamental issues such as methods for maintaining or enhancing quality, minimizing postharvest losses, and recommended technologies to boost demand. Contributions come from experts in the field, making this a key reference for all aspects of postharvest management of temperate fruits.

Food scarcity and insecurity is an alarming issue throughout the world. Postharvest loss due to both mechanical damage and microbial spoilage significantly influences the shelf life and hence the availability of agricultural produce. Once initiated, the microbial spoilage can make bulk quantity of a given agricultural product unacceptable for human consumption, and several methods have already been used to try to manage this. Considering the limited success of the available methods, there is increasing interest in exploring nanotechnological methods. These methods are being considered for both the development of various platforms for antimicrobial/barrier packaging applications that minimize the contact of agricultural produce with the external environment, and also for design sensors to ensure food safety and quality.