Key Technologies for Fruit and Vegetable Preservation: Pre-Harvest Processing and Post-Harvest Management
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Packaging and Preservation".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2026
Special Issue Editor
Interests: fruit preservation and processing technology; fruit postharvest pathogen managment; fruit nutrition and bioactives; fermented food; functional food
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Fruit and vegetables are highly perishable after harvest, being prone to moisture loss, pathological decay, and quality degradation, which result in substantial economic losses and resource waste. Their storability and shelf life are collectively determined by pre-harvest management practices, harvest maturity, post-harvest handling, and storage conditions.
High initial quality at harvest is a fundamental prerequisite for extending freshness and maintaining market value. Pre-harvest interventions modulate key physiological and metabolic processes, such as energy metabolism, antioxidant system, respiratory level, and induced disease resistance. These strategies with the advantages of operational simplicity, source-level control, and environmental compatibility, could effectively enhance both the harvest quality and post-harvest storability.
While pre-harvest regulation is essential for building innate quality and resilience, it cannot fully substitute for post-harvest preservation. Novel post-harvest technologies, such as biocontrol agents and physical field-based treatments, have shown promising efficacy in maintaining quality and extending shelf life. Moving forward, integrating pre-harvest treatments with advanced post-harvest technologies into a coherent, full-chain quality management system represents a strategic direction for enhancing storage performance and reducing post-harvest losses.
In light of these considerations, this Special Issue invites the submission of research articles and reviews focusing on pre-harvest and post-harvest technologies for the preservation of fruits and vegetables.
Dr. Zhong-Gao Jiao
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. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2900 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
- fruit and vegetables
- pre-harvest treatment
- postharvest storage
- preservation techniques
- quality
- nutrition
- mechanism
- pathogen control
- shelf life
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