Irradiation: A tool for the sustainability of fruit and vegetable supply chain-Advancements and future trends.

The trend for healthy food and lifestyle has enabled consumers to include fruits and vegetables in their daily diet. Fruits and vegetables are vulnerable to rapid deterioration while improper management of fresh produce also adds to unfruitful disposal causing environmental pollution and economic problems resultantly. Also, the consumer refusal of chemical additives and losses of the food bioactive compounds due to thermal processing has attracted the attention of the research fraternity to look for better alternatives. Ionizing radiation treatment of fresh produce is a non-thermal approach that holds the potential to stretch the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables with numerous benefits over thermal approaches. Irradiation is a physical method of food preservation apt for microbial inactivation, shelf-life improvement, and sprout inhibition without nutritional losses and chemical residues. Ionizing radiation treatment of horticultural produce involves exposure to radiations from sources viz. X-rays, gamma-rays, electron beam. Reviewing the performances of ionizing radiation for perishable food systems, the current article has been summarized to provide an insight into the concept, application, its effects, together with a market outlook covering consumer attitude and pertaining legislations. Furthermore, it also provides a gleam into the future perspective of the technology to nurture the agro-food realm. • Ionizing radiation (IR) is non-thermal technology to process, protect, preserve and retain quality of fresh produce. • IR can extend shelf-life, inactivate microbes, and inhibit sprouting and quality deterioration. • Performances of IR has been summarized with market outlook, consumer attitude and pertaining legislations. • Safety concerns on dose, duration and desired outcome needs standardization, monitoring and strict regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]