Post-harvest quality maintenance of vegetables [in Japan]

Post-harvest technology of vegetables from harvest to the time of consumption has made rapid progress in the past two decades in Japan, including careful harvesting and sorting, strict standardization, development of appropriate packing materials, mechanized pre-cooling facilities, refrigerated system, and neat display methods. Since vegetables remain as living plants after harvest, biological phenomena are operating during the distribution, i.e. respiration, transpiration leading to water loss, ethylene production, senescence of leafy vegetables, ripening of fruit vegetables, growth and development. As the biological changes are associated with important chemical changes which are closely related to the quality of the produce, the effect of biological phenomena should be reduced as much as possible. In order to maintain the freshness of vegetables, the following post-harvest environmental factors need to be considered: 1) handling method, 2) temperature, 3) relative humidity, and 4) atmospheric conditions (O2, CO2 and N2 proportions)