ABSTRACT
Fruits and vegetables are considered as a commercially important and nutritionally essential food commodity due to providing not only the major dietary source of vitamins, sugars, organic acids, and minerals, but also other phytochemicals including dietary fiber and antioxidants with health-beneficial effects. In addition, fruits and vegetables provide variety in color, shape, taste, aroma, and texture to refine sensory pleasure in human’s diet. There is an increasing demand for fresh produce at the consumer level, because of the raising awareness of people about the superior of fresh, natural foods than processed products resulting in the active encouragement by health agencies and public media as well as several medical researches demonstrating various health benefits of fresh produce consumption (Wills et al., 2007). Unfortunately, fruits and vegetables are highly perishable in nature and may be unacceptable for consumption if not handled properly after harvesting (Kader, 2002, 2005; Kays and Paull 2004; Wills et al., 2007). Furthermore, fresh Fruits and vegetables have great potential for foreign exchange. Longer shipments and distribution periods may eventually increase the potential of heavy losses. It is important to stress that postharvest losses occurs due to high moisture content, active metabolisms, tender nature, and rich in nutrients, etc., are immense. It is estimated that the magnitude of these losses due to inadequate postharvest handling, transportation, and storage in fresh fruits and vegetables is relatively higher, 20-50 percent, in developing countries when compared to 5-25 percent in developed countries (Kader 2005). Technically advanced countries such as the USA, Japan, Australia, and European countries can apply relatively sophisticated technologies to minimize losses whereas in developing countries postharvest losses are one of the most significant factors limiting agricultural production. Therefore, the importance of proper cares and techniques for handling fresh produce after harvest has been recognized and emphasized. The complete elimination of postharvest losses may be impossible and uneconomical, but to diminish them by 50 percent is possible and desirable (Kader 2005).
