Postharvest Losses

A staggering 10 to 40% of the food that is grown is never eaten because of damage, pests, ageing and the consumers demand for 'perfect' produce. 

Post harvest losses waste valuable resources such as land, water, energy, fertilisers, labour and effort and can seriously reduce growers returns.

The attached 4 page fact sheet (pdf 298 kb), lists the major reasons for post-harvest losses and how to prevent them. Optimal storage conditions for key vegetable lines and an instructive case study are also presented.

Key Points :

Keep a focus on quality throughout the supply chain :

• Keep it healthy: at harvest and from there on

• Keep it cool: check optimum temperature requirements

• Keep it gentle: no rough handling/bumpy rides

• Keep it clean: coolrooms, equipment, packaging and people

• Keep it breathing: vegetables are alive, airflow and ventilation are vital in storage, transport and packaging

Post harvest management is about maintaining quality from production in the paddock to the plate. Maintaining vegetable quality requires good systems throughout the supply chain as each step is influenced by earlier steps.

Losses of fresh produce are often greater in warm/humid climates, which make it harder to quickly take field heat out of the harvested crop. Long distance transport can also challenge cool chain capabilities.

Minimising wastage requires a focus on quality throughout the supply chain.

Poor quality crops that are affected by pests, inappropriately irrigated, fertilised or harvested past maturity, can't be improved by post harvest treatments.

Vegetables are living plant tissue, containing up to 95% water. Once harvested they will deteriorate over time. Deterioration can be slowed by low temperature, high humidity, controlled atmosphere packaging and avoiding physical damage.

See Also :

Postharvest Fresh - website

Vegetable Cool Chain - vegenote