Post-harvest biotechnology

The post-harvest life of fruits and vegetables is limited by a number of factors that include transpiration, post-harvest diseases, ripening and senescence. Research at UNMC focuses on:

• Developing and using novel technologies that prolong the shelf and storage of perishable fruits and vegetables.Minimising post-harvest losses to enhance food security.

• Maintaining the nutritional value of the fruits and vegetables.

• Enhancing the phytochemical content is of particular interest in the research conducted.

• Developing an understanding of the ripening process of perishable fruits and vegetables.

• Use of natural product as an alternative to synthetic fungicides to manage post-harvest diseases.

• Pre-harvest factors which influence post-harvest quality of fruits and vegetables.

Research is driven by a motive to develop technologies that are economic, sustainable and biodegradable such as natural based edible coatings, ozone and the use of nanotechnology. 

Collaboration with various industrial, academic and governmental bodies has been forged.