Use of Ionizing Radiation as a Phytosanitary Treatment for Postharvest Disease Control

Postharvest diseases cause considerable losses to harvested fruits and vegetables worldwide. Fresh produce suspected of harboring postharvest disease must be treated to control any pathogens present. Although there are various treatments to control postharvest losses by pathogens, the current community is eager to take safer and more eco-friendly alternatives to help with human health and reduce environmental risks. Ionizing irradiation is a promising phytosanitary treatment that has a significant potential to control postharvest diseases in use worldwide. Although almost 19000 metric tons of sweet potatoes and various fruits are irradiated each year in six countries to control postharvest disease, irradiation continues to be a debate, with slow acceptance by industries. Irradiation alone is not effective as a fungicide, and an over dose affects the physical properties of irradiated products. A combination of irradiation with other treatments such as heating, biocontrol agents, chlorination, and nano Ag particles is to enhance their effectiveness. Challenges to the use of phytosanitary irradiation are an avoidance of irradiated postharvest and cost of the irradiation facilities, and thus consumers still need to be educated on the principles and benefits of irradiation and prepare an optimum economy of scale for commercial use. In this review, we evaluated the current phytosanitary irradiation, and combination with various other treatments to minimize the postharvest losses.