Review of the pre and post harvest handling methods of apple fruit (Malus domestic)

Apple (Malus domestica) is a tree and its pomaceous fruit, of species Mauls domestic a Borkhin the
rose family Rosaceae, is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits. The main objective of this review
is to review postharvest handling of apple fruit with the following Specific objectives: to review preharvest factors that affect postharvest quality of apple fruit and review postharvest factors that affect
quality of apple fruits. The factor that causes postharvest losses of apple fruits are harvesting, storage,
packaging, transportation and marketing and some other pre -harvest factor that affect the postharvest
quality of apple are cultivars, cultivation practices, fertilizer, irrigation, environmental
factors(temperature, relative humidity and atmosphere condition,) and soil type. Postharvest losses of
apple can occur due to improper harvesting, transportation, packaging, storage, processing/sorting,
grading and marketing. The major causes of postharvest losses of apple are physiological disorder
(caused due to freezing, high temperature, mechanical damage and pathological disorder. Management
of temperature and relative humidity are the most effective tool for maintaining quality and extending
the shelf life of apple fruit after harvest. It can conclude that, all horticultural crops are very perishable
because of their high content of water, soft in texture due to this there is high amount of postharvest
loss. To overcome such problem the only option is that properly postharvest handling should conduct at
any stage of postharvest chain to reduce losses and maintain quality.
Keywords: apple, postharvest, storage, transportation, packaging, processing and marketing