Title: The Commercial Storage of Fruits, Vegetables, and Florist and Nursery Stocks
Description: Compilation of cooling and storage recommendations for a wide range of vegetables. USDA Handbook 66 (draft revision April 2004)
Abstract:
Agriculture Handbook 66 (HB-66) is intended as a general reference, and the recommendations should not be considered absolute, but rather as safe limits at which products can ordinarily be handled and stored.
HB-66 represents a complete revision of the 1986 edition. It has been reorganized and now includes 13 Chapters and 138 Commodity Summaries written by nearly 100 different experts in postharvest biology and technology. Unlike previous editions of HB-66 in 1968, 1977 and 1986, which were revisions of the original HB-66 completed in 1954, this 2004 edition not only presents summaries of the storage requirements of fresh fruits, vegetables, cut flowers, and other horticultural crops, but also includes information on quality characteristics, maturity indices, grading, packaging, pre-cooling, retail display, chilling sensitivity, ethylene production and sensitivity, respiration rates, physiological disorders, postharvest pathology, quarantine issues, and suitability as fresh-cut product. In addition, a number of fruits and vegetables were added, as well as sections on food safety and fresh-cut produce.
The purpose of storing plant material is to lengthen the time it can be consumed or utilized. In doing so, it is critical to provide an environment that minimizes deterioration, maintaining safety and quality while lengthening the marketing- or shelf-life. The intent of HB-66 is to provide guidelines for storing produce in an optimal environment in order to accomplish this.