Forthcoming and Online First Articles
International Journal of Postharvest Technology and Innovation

Forthcoming articles have been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication but are pending final changes, are not yet published and may not appear here in their final order of publication until they are assigned to issues. Therefore, the content conforms to our standards but the presentation (e.g. typesetting and proof-reading) is not necessarily up to the Inderscience standard. Additionally, titles, authors, abstracts and keywords may change before publication. Articles will not be published until the final proofs are validated by their authors.
Forthcoming articles must be purchased for the purposes of research, teaching and private study only. These articles can be cited using the expression "in press". For example: Smith, J. (in press). Article Title. Journal Title.
Articles marked with this shopping trolley icon are available for purchase - click on the icon to send an email request to purchase.
Online First articles are published online here, before they appear in a journal issue. Online First articles are fully citeable, complete with a DOI. They can be cited, read, and downloaded. Online First articles are published as Open Access (OA) articles to make the latest research available as early as possible.
Register for our alerting service, which notifies you by email when new issues are published online.
International Journal of Postharvest Technology and Innovation (2 papers in press) Regular Issues Abstract: Adoption of food loss-reduction measures greatly depends on the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAPs) of the actors. This paper analyses KAPs relevance to food loss reduction among supply chain actors. Focusing on Kajiado and Kitui counties and supply chains to the Kenya home grown school meals programme (HGSMP), face-to-face interviews using structured questionnaires gathered insights from a total of 108 farmers and 90 traders. Descriptive analysis, factor analysis and multivariate regressions were conducted. The results reveal that farmers in both counties have very different KAPs due to their different socio-cultural and agro-ecological conditions. Further analysis revealed that actors knowledge, positive attitudes and practices are specific, distinct and crucial to reducing postharvest losses. Therefore, tailored capacity-development efforts and incentives that encourage behavioural shifts and adoption of appropriate postharvest practices and technologies are recommended to addressing food loss effectively. Keywords: food loss; HGSMP; home-grown school meals program; multi-variate regression; KAPs; knowledge attitude practices; Kenya. DOI: 10.1504/IJPTI.2025.10072221 Special Issue on: AAPHCE 2023 Innovative Solutions for Food Loss and Waste Reduction in Africa
![]() by Mawande Hugh Shinga, Olaniyi Amos Fawole Abstract: Minimally processed products deteriorate in quality due to increased respiration, enzymatic activity, and microbial growth. Postharvest treatment applications are needed to maintain quality and enhance marketability. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of Opuntia ficus-indica mucilage (OFIM) reinforced with cellulose nanofibres (CNF) as an edible coating for fresh-cut butternut during cold storage. Butternut cubes were coated with 0.5% OFIM containing 0.03, 0.06, or 0.09% CNF and stored at 4 C and 85 +- 5% RH for 20 days. Quality parameters, including weight loss, firmness, respiration rate (RR), total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), colour, total carotenoid content (TCC), total phenolic content (TPC), total ascorbic acid content (AA) and 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) were measured every four days. OFIM coating reduced WL and maintained TSS, TA, firmness, TPC, AA and DPPH compared to uncoated fruit. These findings suggest OFIM could be a natural preservative for minimally processed produce. Keywords: edible coating; postharvest quality; antioxidant activities; market value; minimally processed produce; Opuntia ficus-indica mucilage; cold storage. DOI: 10.1504/IJPTI.2025.10071250 |