TABLE OF CONTENTS Losses (shrinkage) in marketing fresh vegetables (harvesting, handling, packing, storing, and retailing) are caused, in part, by overly high temperatures during handling, storage, and transport, which increase ripening, decay, and the loss of edible quality and nutrient values. Some cases may involve freezing or chilling injury from overly low temperatures. Other serious losses are caused by mechanical injury from careless or rough handling and by shrinkage or wilting because of moisture loss. Shrinkage can be reduced substantially by following recommended handling, cooling, transport, and storage practices. Improved packaging, refrigerated transport, and awareness of refrigeration's role in maintaining quality throughout marketing have made it possible to transport vegetables in field-fresh condition to distant markets.
This chapter covers postharvest handling, cooling, packaging, in-transit preservation, and storage at destination locations for fresh vegetables. It also gives storage requirements for specific vegetables, including potential product deterioration due to improper handling and storage conditions. Vegetable precooling is covered in Chapter 15, and vegetable processing and freezing in Chapter 27. Chapter 11 also provides storage requirements for many types of vegetables.
The principal hazards to quality retention during marketing include
Metabolic changes (composition, texture, color) associated with respiration, ripening, and senescence (aging)
Moisture loss with resultant wilting and shriveling
Bruising and other mechanical injuries
Parasitic diseases
Physiological disorders
Freezing and chilling injury
Flavor and nutritional changes
Growth (sprouting, rooting)
Ethylene-caused injury
Fresh vegetables are living tissues and have a continuing need for O 2 for respiration. During respiration, stored...
