Postharvest - Postharvest Shelf Life

Postharvest Shelf Life

Once harvested, vegetable and fruit are subject to the active process of senescence. Numerous biochemical processes continuously change the original composition of the crop until it becomes unmarketable. The period during which consumption is considered acceptable is defined as the time of "postharvest shelf life".

Postharvest shelf life is typically determined by objective methods that determine the overall appearance, taste, flavor, and texture of the commodity. These methods usually include a combination of sensorial, biochemical, mechanical, and colorimetric (optical) measurements. A recent study attempted (and failed) to discover a biochemical marker and fingerprint methods as indices for freshness .

Read more about this topic:  Postharvest

Famous quotes containing the words shelf life, shelf and/or life:

    “The shelf life of the modern hardback writer is somewhere between the milk and the yoghurt.”
    —John Mortimer (b. 1923)

    “The boy seemed to have fallen
    From shelf to shelf of someone’s rage.”
    —John Ashbery (b. 1927)

    “There is no such thing as a life of passion any more than a continuous earthquake, or an eternal fever. Besides, who would ever shave themselves in such a state?”
    —George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)