Postharvest Management of Fresh Produce: Recent Advances - Softcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Dr. Singh is working as a Professor and Head, Department of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM), Kundli, Haryana, India, and has more than 20 years of experience in applied microbiology with a special focus on endophytic microorganisms and their applications in agriculture and health sciences. Dr. Singh explored the indigenous fermented products of Northeast India and isolated several probiotic strains, and characterized them. Currently, his group is exploring these isolated strains for their potential to synthesize neurotransmitters such as GABA, serotonin, dopamine, and SCFAs, and incorporating these strains into functional beverages by adopting co-encapsulation technology. Dr. Singh has published more than 100 research articles and is a part of the Global Burden of Diseases collaborators. Dr. Singh edited 8 books with Elsevier and Springer on different aspects of applied microbiology.

Dr. Shekhar Agnihotri Ph.D. (Nanotechnology) is currently working as an Assistant Professor at National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management, Sonepat (Haryana) under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI), Government of India. With a unique blend of science and engineering disciplines, Dr. Shekhar comes with two postgraduate degrees, MS (Biochemistry) and M.Tech (Biochemical Engineering) from IIT-BHU and has worked in a joint collaborative research at IIT Kanpur. Later he completed his PhD in Nanotechnology from IIT Bombay receiving the prestigious IIT-B Excellence Award for Best PhD thesis. Dr. Shekhar is the recipient of DST young scientist award, Indo-Japan Young Fellowship Award, Gold access award (Royal Society of Chemistry, UK), and TIET Best Performer Award. His expertise lies in the area of nano-biotechnology, bioprocess engineering and enzyme technology and has published in high impact factor journals. Dr. Shekhar pursues interests in integrating immobilized enzymes and nano-supports for generating value-added products from agro-waste, novel packaging and smart sensing technologies.

Dr. Singh is working as Assistant Professor at Pachhunga University College (PUC) campus of Mizoram Central University, Mizoram, India. She has completed her doctorate in 2018 from Mizoram University, India in plant sciences and worked on the pharmaceutical potential of selected traditional medicinal plants. Dr. Singh has 8 years of research experience and has published several research papers in national and international journals having high impact factor like Scientific reports, BMC complementary and alternative medicine, frontiers in plant sciences, etc. Dr. Singh has awarded for her work by several agencies while presenting her research work in India and abroad. Her expertise lies in the areas of utilization of traditional medicinal plants for sustainable development, secondary metabolites extraction and documentation of traditional medicinal pants. Dr. Singh is running one externally funded project to explore the pharmaceutical potential of some selected traditional medicinal plants located in North East India.

Dr. Vijai Kumar Gupta holds a doctoral degree in Microbiology from Dr RML Avadh University, India. Currently, he is working as Senior Fellow and Group Leader at Center for Safe and Improved Foods & Biorefining and Advanced Materials Research Center, SRUC, Edinburgh, UK. Dr Gupta is an expert in Biomass Valorisation, Microbial Engineering Biotechnologies, Enzyme and Bioprocessing Technologies, Bioactive Natural Products, and Functional Microbiome. Overall focus of his research is on developing bioprocess technologies to valorise available bioresources for the production of value-added biochemicals, bioproducts, and fuels and their potential to address the key challenges in agri-food-pharma-environment importance. He has published several peer-reviewed publications, 48 book chapters and 42 books in his hands.

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Reduction in postharvest losses has remained a major key challenge among agri-food professionals to meet the consumption and demand of fresh produce. Fruits and vegetables, being classified as highly perishable commodities, are prone to postharvest losses through heat/drought, mechanical damage during harvesting and handling, improper sanitation, and intriguing environmental factors. In low-income regions, the contribution of high food losses is manifested mainly at production, postharvest handling and storage stages whereas, retail and consumer level are the major stages in developed countries for a similar extent of food losses.

Postharvest Management of Fresh Produce: Recent Advances critically addresses the latest issues, challenges and technological advancements in postharvest management of fresh commodities, especially fruits, nuts and vegetables. It covers the intriguing correlation of preharvest treatments, maturity indices and postharvest operations that significantly affect the postharvest quality of fresh produce. Further topics include packaging, logistics and storage technologies, role of microbial communities, and ‘omics’ strategies in postharvest disease management. Special attention is given to the latest trends of nanotechnology, internet of things (IoTs) and blockchain technologies in food supply chain management of perishable products.

The book is a great resource that enables young and experienced professionals working in both, academia and industry, along with UG/PG students to explore a diversified range of topics in postharvest strategies relevant in food processing, food technologies, agro-processing, and quality control.