Post-harvest management to reduce fruit and vegetable losses for food sustainability: A review

Post-harvest loss of fruits and vegetables is a major challenge for food security and the reduction of global hunger. In some supply chains, losses can reach approximately 50%, making their prevention essential for sustainably feeding a growing population. Important loss points occur during harvesting, post-harvest handling, marketing, storage, processing, and transportation. These losses arise from interacting mechanical, physiological, pathological, microbial, and environmental factors and are intensified by inadequate infrastructure and handling practices. This review examines the principal causes of post-harvest fruit and vegetable losses and practical approaches for their reduction. Appropriate maturity assessment, careful harvesting and grading, hygienic washing, effective packaging, rapid pre-cooling, improved transport, moisture-retentive packaging, low-temperature storage, and controlled-atmosphere systems can preserve quality and extend shelf life. Affordable technologies such as crate liners, smaller packages, shaded field-packing stations, zero-energy cool chambers, and CoolBot-controlled cold rooms can provide substantial benefits to small-scale producers. Combining suitable pre-harvest practices with careful control of temperature, humidity, atmospheric composition, microbial contamination, and mechanical damage can reduce losses and support a more sustainable food system.