Phytosanitary irradiation effects on fresh produce quality - A review

Phytosanitary irradiation uses ionising irradiation (< 1000 Gy) as an end-point treatment of quarantine insect pests in fresh produce to facilitate market access and trade. While this market access treatment has limited international acceptance, its commercial use is growing and new X-ray irradiation treatment facilities are being built around the world. In most fruit tolerance studies, phytosanitary irradiation does not have any commercial effects on final product quality, nutrition and proximate content and this treatment is accepted and used as a commercial market access treatment in some countries. However, in selected instances, irradiation can negatively affect some aspects of quality, such as the development of storage disorders e.g. surface pitting in mandarins. On the other hand, other studies have shown that irradiation can reduce some storage disorders such as superficial scald in apples. In some cases where irradiation induced storage disorders have been identified, applied research has provided practical solutions to reduce these disorders which has enabled commercial use of the treatment and allowed international trade. Most research on the fruit tolerance responses to phytosanitary irradiation has been empirical in nature with little understanding of the molecular, biochemical and physiological processes affected by irradiation treatment. This review focuses on the effects of phytosanitary irradiation on fruit quality and provides some commercial solutions to overcome some potential irradiation induced issues.