Postharvest Treatments for Preserving Quality and Reducing Food Loss in Horticultural Products

Dear Colleagues,

Food loss and waste are major global challenges, with significant losses occurring post harvest due to quality deterioration. Consequently, this Special Issue aims to showcase recent advances in postharvest technologies and biological strategies that maintain product quality, prolong shelf-life, and minimize waste.

We welcome original research articles and reviews addressing areas of interest such as those exemplified by the following topics:

• Innovative physical and chemical treatments (e.g., cold chain optimization, modified atmospheres, heat treatments, edible coatings, UV-C, ozone, irradiation, pulsed electric fields, cold plasma, etc.).
• Plant-derived elicitors, biostimulants compounds or biocontrol agents that delay ripening, chilling injury, physiological damage, and senescence, or that reduce microbial spoilage.
• Metabolic pathways and stress responses related to ripening, intrinsic defense mechanisms, signaling pathways (e.g., jasmonates or ethylene), and phytohormones with the aim of enhancing beneficial secondary metabolites, antioxidant accumulation, or cell wall degradation.
• Omics approaches (e.g., transcriptomics and metabolomics) contributing to the understanding of quality maintenance at the molecular level.
• Smart packaging technologies and nanomaterials for quality monitoring or targeted compound release.

This Special Issue aims to contribute to advancements in postharvest physiology, innovative technologies, or practical/sustainable solutions that help reduce food loss and enhance the value of horticultural crops.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Analía Concellón
Dr. María José Zaro
Guest Editors

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Horticulturae 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 2200 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.