Storage and marketing of fruits and vegetables: Use of hormones, fungicides and other treatments.

ALTHOUGH fresh fruits and vegetables
are best stored with the aid of refrigeration,
methods of non-refrigerated storage of
fresh fruits and vegetables could be of considerable
economic importance, especially in a country
like India where refrigerated transport is hardly
available and the cold storage industry is in its
infancy.
Since fresh fruits and vegetables have a very
nigh rate of respiration at ordinary temperatures,
the only method of prolonging their storage lives to
the maximum is to reduce the rate of respiration
by storing them at low temperatures. Some
treatments at ordinary (room) temperatures may,
for example, inhibit sprouting in potato tubers,
decrease rooting and germination in onions and
decrease the transpirational losses in oranges,
mangoes and bananas; yet the approximate
storage lives will be shorter and physiological
losses in weight greater as compared with cold
storage and refrigerated gas-storage. Moreover,
these methods can be of considerable economic
importance in hills. For example, potatoes can
be stored in certain parts of Nilgiris with advantage,
using growth-inhibitors and without artificial
refrigeration.