ABSTRACT
The daily availability of safe, fresh vegetables is essential to meet people’s nutritional needs for healthy living. The annual production of vegetables worldwide exceeded 109 tonnes in 2010 (FAO, 2012). People who live on land where they can grow their own produce can be self-sufcient, and if their land area or farm is large enough, they may sell the produce to local people or to inhabitants of towns and cities. When produce is grown, harvested, and consumed on the day of harvesting, there is no need to apply any postharvest technologies. As farms are now located hundreds of kilometres away from the cities, it may take hours or days to transport them to the markets. As most vegetables are highly perishable, once they have been harvested, their nutritional quality and sensory characteristics may rapidly deteriorate. As opposed to grain crops, with very few exceptions, vegetables are harvested prior to the onset of senescence and dormancy, which makes them even more susceptible to deterioration.
