Chapter 1 - Postharvest Quality of Fruits and Vegetables: An Overview

Abstract

The chapter refers to the considerations and updates regarding postharvest fruit and vegetable quality. This approach exposes the major parameters and attributes of fruits and vegetables after cultivation, with consumers or product makers as the final destination. Furthermore, it discusses the main factors that influence in senescence and ways to control to maintain freshness, color, and firmness, among many other important sensorial attributes that reflect directly in the product quality along with its acceptance. Many studies presented in this chapter show methods and controlling technologies that play a role in quality, such as special packages and modified atmosphere; gas regulators; materials used in transport and its degree of damage in fruits and vegetables; color preservation and the effect in maintenance of fruit characteristic; soluble solids content during postharvest chain; shelf life in respect to temperature control; new methods to control quality decay in postharvest fruits and vegetables in general. Studies in the postharvest field are fundamental to stimulate new technologies and provide increasingly a wider variety of fruits and vegetables with extended shelf life with appreciable quality.