The Use of Controlled Postharvest Abiotic Stresses as a Tool for Enhancing the Nutraceutical Content and Adding‐Value of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper proposes a concept based on applying postharvest abiotic stresses to enhance the nutraceutical content of fresh fruits and vegetables. We hypothesize that selected abiotic stress treatments, such as wounding, phytohormones, temperature, ultraviolet light, altered gas composition, heat shock, and water stress, among others, will affect the secondary metabolism of fresh produce and increase the synthesis of phytochemicals with nutraceutical activity or reduce the synthesis of undesirable compounds. Controlled stresses may be used as tools by the fresh produce industry to enhance the health benefit properties of fresh‐cut or whole fresh produce and by the food processing and dietary supplement industries to obtain healthier processed products or enhance extractable nutraceutical yields.