Fresh-Cut Fruits and Vegetables. In: "Postharvest Physiological Disorders in Fruits and Vegetables (Innovations in Postharvest Technology Series) 1st Edition, Eds. Tonetto de Freitas S., Pareek S. CRC Press (in press).

Fresh-cut fruits and vegetable are minimally processed products available on the market in response to consumer demand for convenience and ready to eat products. Fresh-cut processing is responsible for a serious of physical and/or physiological disorders which affect the product quality and shelf-life. Moreover, the storage conditions (i.e, temperature, relative humidity and modified atmosphere,) may either delay or accelerated these disorders, impacting on colour, texture, volatile profile and taste attributes. In this chapter, an overview of the physiology of fresh-cut processing is presented. Moreover, the main physical and physiological disorders due to fresh-cut processing, affecting fruits and vegetable quality are described. Finally, physiological changes due to the lack of proper storage conditions are reported and the utility of ammonium analysis as objective indicator of senescence and/or postharvest stressful conditions is presented.