ABSTRACT
Shea tree belongs to the Sapotaceae family and was first named by the German botanist Carl Gaertner. It was later renamed Butyrospermum parkii by the same author in 1961. Shea tree grows wild in the noncoastal areas of dry savannas, forest and parklands of the Sudan zones of some African countries such as Senegal, Mali, Côte d Ivoire, etc. Postharvest diseases are microbial diseases, which affect food crops after harvesting to storage. Some of the factors encouraging postharvest diseases caused by microorganisms include injury to fruits during harvesting, virulency of the pathogen, nutritional status of the fruits and environmental storage conditions. Postharvest food loss can be determined by either measuring the quantitative loss or qualitative loss. The three basic methods for processing Shea butter include: traditional, semiimproved and mechanized methods. Timely picking of Shea fruits and processing should be carried out without much delay, because heaping of Shea fruits for longer time encourages fungal deterioration and loss of food value.
