Innovative Postharvest Technologies for Maintaining Quality, Safety, and Shelf Life of Fruits and Vegetables
A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Horticultural and Floricultural Crops".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 39
Special Issue Editor
Interests: plant physiology; minimizing food loss; minimizing food waste; pre-harvest technologies; post-harvest technologies; food security and environment
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Fruits and vegetables are perishable horticulture crops that are grown not only in tropical and subtropical regions but also in temperate, arid, and semi-arid climates worldwide. They are rich sources of nutrients and phytochemicals that benefit human health and contribute to meeting food security and alleviating poverty. However, depending on the horticultural commodity and country, there is a loss and waste of between 30% and 80% at different stages of the supply chains. The causes of food loss and food waste are diverse, including the following: products below quality standards, especially undersized/oversized products; overproduction/low prices; cancellations; lack of infrastructure; unfair purchasing power; impassable roads; inadequate transportation; and criminality (developing countries). Therefore, new postharvest technologies are necessary to reduce food loss and waste globally at any stage of the supply chain.
This Special Issue welcomes research articles and reviews that discuss novel postharvest technologies for maintaining quality, safety, and shelf life of fruits and vegetables at any state of the supply chain.
Issues in pre-harvest management that and extend their shelf life improve of fruit and vegetables are welcome.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Novel physical and electrical technologies (e.g., cold plasma, pulsed electric field, high hydrostatic pressure, ozone treatments)
- Advanced packaging and coatings (e.g., active packaging, edible coatings and nano-emulsion, modified atmosphere packaging).
- Biochemical and non-destructive monitoring (e.g., melatonin treatment, biocontrol agents, image analysis, electronic noses, and near-infrared spectroscopy).
- Classical and modern breeding techniques for extending the shelf life of fruit and vegetables (e.g., F1 hybrid breeding, marker-assisted selection, genome-wide association studies).
- Advanced genetic technologies (e.g., gene editing and transgenic approaches).
- Targeted traits for extended shelf life (e.g., Plant breeding to reduce ethylene production, enhanced decay resistance, enhanced water withholding).
- Thicker cuticles/waxes (e.g., Developing plants with fruit naturally tougher or more resilient outer layers can create better physical barriers against moisture loss and pathogen entry).
- Colorimetric indicators for Intelligent packaging of food freshness.
Dr. Jorge A. Zegbe
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- horticultural commodities
- pre- and postharvest technologies
- supply chains
- food loss
- food waste
- pre harvest
- greenhouse gas emissions
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