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Gamma radiation effects on fruits and vegetables

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Abstract

Several million dollars are lost in the United States each year as a result of post harvest diseases of crops. Claim costs to railroads alone in 1958 amounted to $11 million. This work demonstrates that it is possible to extend the shelf-life of fresh fruits and vegetables at room as well as at refrigeration temperatures by gamma radiation, by surface pasteurization, sprout inhibition, and also by retarding the ripening processes. The information presented should be useful to researchers, shippers, packers, and processors.

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  1. Department of Horticulture, Utah State University, Logan, Utah

    D. K. Salunkhe

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Research conducted at the Utah State University in cooperation with the Quartermaster Food and Container Institute for the Armed Forces and has been assigned No. 1082 in the series of papers approved for publication. The views and/or conclusions contained in this paper are those of the author. They are not to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views or endorsement of the Department of Defense.

Contribution No. 167 from Utah State Agricultural Experiment Station, Logan, Utah.

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Salunkhe, D.K. Gamma radiation effects on fruits and vegetables. Econ Bot 15, 28–56 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02906760

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