Progress on techniques and mechanisms in alleviating chilling injury of postharvest fruits and vegetables

Most tropical and subtropical fruits are susceptible to chilling injury,mainly manifested as surface pitting and discoloration,water soaking,browning,and failure to ripening.The development of these chilling injury symptoms negatively affects fruit quality and thus shortens storage life.In this article,different postharvest approaches applied to alleviate chilling injury,such as physical techniques,chemical treatments and genetic engineering,were thoroughly reviewed.Meanwhile,the mechanisms involved in the alleviation of chilling injury were discussed and the future research need was proposed.