ABSTRACT
Although deterioration in quality of the harvested fruits and vegetables is the consequence of interactions of several factors (physical, physiological and microbial), microbial activity is by far the single most important one (Sommer, 1982). Fresh fruits and vegetables are very often susceptible to attack by pathogenic fungi and bacteria after harvest (Ray and Ravi, 2005). Postharvest diseases of fruits and vegetables are, therefore, one of the most severe sources of loss of produce. These losses can be high and their economic cost is greater than for losses in the field. Reported values for losses in several fruits and vegetables from developed countries range from approximately 10-30% of harvested horticultural crops, due to postharvest microbial spoilage. In developing countries, where sanitation and refrigeration are lacking or minimal, the losses are even greater, amounting in many cases to more than 40 or 50% of the harvested crops (Salunkhe et al., 1991; Aidoo, 1993).
