Fruit and Vegetable Quality

CHAPTER 6

Postharvest Handling and

Storage of Vegetables

TORSTEN NILSSON

INTRODUCTION

POSTHARVEST handling and storage of vegetables is a necessary mea-
sure in order to supply consumers, caterers and processors with fresh
produce independent of the distance in time and space between grower
and consumer. The vegetable market comprises a broad assortment from
fresh produce and minimally processed refrigerated vegetables (Wiley,
1994) to canned, frozen, fermented or just pre-cooked products treated
in order to maintain shelf life and quality over a longer period of time
(Arthey and Dennis, 1991). This chapter will focus on storage and han-
dling of fresh and minimally processed, refrigerated vegetables.
Vegetables comprise a wide range of plant organs from those under-
going rapid preharvest growth (asparagus, broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower),
which makes them perishable with a limited shelf life, fleshy fruits
(tomato, cucumber, sweet pepper) to storage organs (onion, carrot, cele-
riac, beetroot) designed for survival to the next growing season. Those
belonging to the first two groups are not intended to continue their on-
togenesis after harvest and therefore senesce rapidly due to inability to
maintain homeostasis. In the third group, mainly consisting of plants
with a biennial life cycle, growth ceases in the autumn with the storage
organ entering an imposed or true dormant period with diminished me-
tabolism. Normally, storage organs are carrying meristematic tissue,
which undergoes vernalization during storage. Regrowth with a con-

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