Sub-zero temperature preservation of fruits and vegetables: A review

Fruits and vegetables are delicious, nutritional, and healthy, thus constituting important parts of human diet. However, the postharvest preservation of fruits and vegetables is a challenge owing to their highly perishable nature. Recently, a narrow sub-zero temperature zone has received increasing research attention in the low-temperature preservation field because of its superior ability to inhibit respiratory rate, deterioration reactions, and pathogenic microorganism growth without causing chilling injury and deterioration of food quality. Therefore, this review comprehensively summarizes the worldwide application status of three temperature ranges, i.e., ice temperature, super-cooling (without phase change), and super-chilling (slight or partial freezing), to the preservation of fruits and vegetables, their mechanisms of protection/damage, and promising strategies for quality improvement. Thus, our review provides a theoretical basis for the informed development of technologies based on these temperature ranges as a means to achieve better preservation effectiveness for fresh fruits and vegetables in practical applications. •Sub-zero temperature zones are useful for fruit and vegetable preservation.•Hierarchical and accurate temperature control based on FT values is highly effective.•Appropriate equipment and systematic application for cold-chain systems is crucial.•Superchilling-tolerance mechanisms and combined technologies are discussed.•Modelling super-chilling processes to identify optimal conditions is vital.