Abstract: Biological and physical practices in marketing vegetables and fruits have benefited from research with horticultural crops on the preparation, packaging, distribution and storage of fresh produce. Study of post-harvest physiology and control of crop diseases has resulted in increased production of fresh vegetables, including potatoes and melons. Marketing of commercial crop includes harvesting, sorting, grading, packaging, transport,storage and protection of the vegetabes during wholesale-retail distribution. Suitable environments for thevegetables at each phase of marketing are described to provide information for workers in the vegetable industry.

Best practices for preserving quality and consumer appeal of fresh fruits, vegetables Clarifies calculations for efficient cooling, controlled ripening and storage Presents strategies for reducing microbial risks and post-harvest pathologies A comprehensive introduction to established and emergent post-harvest technologies, this text shows how to enhance the value of perishable fruits and vegetable by mitigating the causes of deterioration and spoilage from farm to point of purchase. After investigating the structural, chemical and nutritional properties of fruits and vegetables, the book provides a step-by-step explanation of processing from machine harvesting through handling, ripening technologies, packaging and distribution. Emphasis is placed on ways to collect data needed to monitor quality. Psychrometric principles and their role in cold storage systems are presented along with calculations enabling effective refrigeration and control of transpiration, humidity and gases. The book includes examples and calculations for improving process control and predicting the shelf-life of temperate-climate and tropical fruits and vegetables.

A comprehensive study of the causes of plant disease, the processes involved in plant-pathogen interaction, the genetics of pathogenesis, and the epidemiology of plant disease. Includes an assessment of the application of our knowledge to practical plant disease control.

Note for the electronic edition: This draft has been assembled from information prepared by authors from around the world. It has been submitted for editing and production by the USDA Agricultural Research Service Information Staff and should be cited as an electronic draft of a forthcoming publication. Because the 1986 edition is out of print, because we have added much new and updated information, and because the time to publication for so massive a project is still many months away, we are making this draft widely available for comment from industry stakeholders, as well as university research, teaching and extension staff.

Different phases of fruit development and utilization have been treated in many textbooks, reviews, and a host of scientific and professional papers. This seems, however, to be the first attempt to bring together case histories of so many different fruits and to present a balanced account of the whole period from set to harvest. Postharvest physiology, which has been in the centre of the picture in many former books, is at the bored line of the subject matter of this book, and has not been fully covered, except in a few cases. For this reason, two separate chapters deal with physiological and pathological aspects of fruit life after harvest.