Quantification of strawberry postharvest losses in the Brazilian market

Strawberry (Fragaria ? ananassa) is a very perishable fruit, usually with a very short shelf-life of one a two days when at ambient temperature. Brazilian scientists quantified and characterized the postharvest damages in strawberry fruits from two outlets (CEASA and CEAGESP) of the state of S?o Paulo, Brazil. Main varieties were Oso Grande and Camino Real. The most frequent postharvest damages were diseases, with average incidence of 85%, followed by physical, 40% and physiological, 2%. Among the most frequent pathogens, there were fungi from the genders Botrytis, Colletotrichum, Rhizopus and Cladosporium, besides yeast that were not identified. In both wholesale markets, were verified that strawberries commercialized in packages without films presented less incidence of diseases than fruits in packages with films. Fruits commercialized in one layer also presented fewer diseases, excluding the fruits with long pedicel, which causes physical damages on nearby fruits. The picture, Rhizopus in strawberry; the source is the University of California, in the paper by Ma. Emilia Cassanello, ?Enfermedades de frutilla y su manejo?.? ? ? ? ? ? ?