The Role of Lipid Peroxidation in Storage Disorders of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Abstract

Reduction of postharvest losses of plant products has been described as the second harvest These losses are particularly distressing, as all of the production and harvesting inputs have been made for food that will never provide nourishment. The losses may be physiological consequences of a response to biotic or abiotic stress. This article focuses on physiological responses of harvested products to stress (primarily physical) that result in loss of quality or acceptability. It argues that lipid peroxidation, generally relegated to the status of a secondary effect of a primary event responsible for the degradation process, could actually be a critical, controllable event common to the mechanism of many of these storage disorders.