Increasing Food Availability by Reducing Postharvest Losses of Fresh Produce

Qualitative losses (such as loss of caloric and nutritive value, loss of acceptability by consumers, and loss of edibility) are more difficult to measure than quantitative losses of fresh fruits and vegetables. While reduction of quantitative losses is a higher priority than qualitative losses in developing countries, the opposite is true in developed countries where consumer dissatisfaction with produce quality results in a greater percentage of the total postharvet losses. Providing consumers with fruits and vegetables that taste good can greatly increase their consumption of the recommended minimum of five servings per day for better health. Development of new cultivars with better flavor and nutritional quality plus adequate productivity should be given high priority in all countries. Strategies for reducing postharvest losses in developing countries include: (1) Application of current knowledge to improve the handling systems (especially packaging and cold chain maintenance) of horticultural perishables and assure their quality and safety; (2) Overcoming the socioeconomic constraints, such as inadequacies of infrastructure, poor marketing systems, and weak RD and (3) Encouraging consolidation and vertical integration among producers and marketers of horticultural crops. ESTIMATION OF POSTHARVEST LOSSES Both quantitative and qualitative losses occur in horticultural crops between harvest and consumption. Our goal is to minimize these losses, and to do so we must: 1) understand the biological and environmental factors involved in postharvest deterioration, and 2) use the appropriate postharvest technology procedures that will slow down deterioration and maintain quality and safety of the commodities. Qualitative losses, such as loss in edibility, nutritional quality, caloric value, and consumer acceptability of the products, are much more difficult to assess than quantitative losses. Standards of quality and consumer preferences and purchasing power vary greatly among countries and cultures. For example, elimination of defects from a given commodity before marketing is much less rigorous in developing countries than in developed countries. This, however, is not necessarily bad, because appearance quality is often over-emphasized in developed countries. Postharvest losses vary greatly among commodities and production areas and seasons. In the United States, the losses of fresh fruits and vegetables are estimated to range from 2% to 23%, depending on the commodity, with an overall average of about 12% losses between production and consumption sites (Cappellini and Ceponis, 1984; Harvey, 1978). Kantor et al (1997) estimated the U.S. total retail, foodservice, and consumer food losses in 1995 to be 23% of fruits and 25% of vegetables. Fresh fruits and vegetables accounted for nearly 20% of consumer and foodservice losses, which are due to product deterioration, excess perishable products that are discarded, and plate waste (food not consumed by the purchaser). The latter is often due to consumer dissatisfaction with product quality, especially flavor. Estimates of postharvest losses in developing countries vary greatly from 1 to 50% or even higher (National Academy of Sciences,