Overview of Postharvest and Analytical Technologies for Horticulture Crops

This book discusses advances in postharvest and analytical technology for horticulture crops and challenges to meet future needs. The horticulture crops (fruits and vegetables) need a systematic and scientific postharvest handling and management system for securing both physical and chemical attributes while prolonging their shelf life. Postharvest technologies include storage, drying, packaging, extraction of components, and preparation of juice and wine from the collected fruits and vegetables. All these postharvest technologies have emerged and evolved with time to provide meaningful solutions to minimize food loss, maintain quality, and provide fast processing of horticulture crops. Parallel development of analytical techniques has also evolved to monitor the quality of fruits and vegetables during postharvest processing and thus provide a rapid and efficient method for delivering safer food products.

This book provides an overview of different postharvest technologies, their mechanisms, and their effect on the quality of horticulture crops. It also emphasizes the assessment of each advanced technology, including its limitations and advantages. Overall, this book provides techniques, research, mechanisms, advances, and challenges of postharvest and analytical technologies for horticulture crops, along with recommendations for future research directions.