Evaporative Coolers for the Postharvest Management of Fruits and Vegetables

Book excerpt: Evaporative Coolers for the Postharvest Management of Fruits and Vegetables covers world demand for food of high quality without chemical preservatives and with extended shelf life. The book provides the practical application of evaporative coolers, with a strong focus on postharvest management and fruit/vegetable science as high moisture foods are highly perishable. Special emphasis is laid on the impact of the evaporative coolant structure on the nutritional and food safety content of fresh produce. Moreover, the book covers the effect of evaporative coolant structure towards the reduction of spoilage microorganisms responsible for the spoilage of post-harvest losses of various fruits and vegetables. Edited by a team of specialists, this title also helps people dealing with microbiology understand how this simple technology can help improve product quality for communities that currently lack access to cooling or have unreliable power supplies. - Thoroughly explores shelf-life extensions that can be achieved when applying evaporative cooling - Covers postharvest management through evaporative cooling - Brings food and consumer science aspects from evaporative cooled fruits and vegetables - Presents information on the interaction of edible coatings towards the extension of climacteric and non-climacteric fruits