Pre-Harvest and Postharvest Factors Affecting Quality and Shelf Life of Harvested Produce

Food security and access to quality food are major challenges in the efforts against global hunger. Despite producing a large amount of food each year to boost the economy, a significant portion is lost due to pre-harvest and postharvest factors affecting produce’s quality and shelf life. Numerous interventions have been implemented to address this to improve postharvest management, but there is still an urgent need to identify and manage the various factors contributing to postharvest losses. Factors contributing to postharvest losses include agents of food deterioration inherent in the produce before harvesting, inappropriate cultural practices, genetic composition, harvesting methods, quality of water for irrigation, microbial invasion, insect pest inoculum remnants and more. Postharvest handling involves interactive activities from harvest to consumer’s final decision to eat or reject the food. Produce quality is determined by local conditions, policies, stakeholders’ cultural practices, market demand, road condition, handling methods, packaging materials, transportation methods and level of knowledge and awareness in that environment. This study is to elucidate, through literature, pre-harvest and postharvest factors affecting quality of harvested produce. This study showed that understanding and appropriate management of pre-harvest and postharvest factors would reduce quality losses and increase the shelf life of produce.