Extending lettuce shelf life through integrated technologies

Lettuce, a leafy vegetable used in cuisines worldwide, is a highly perishable product sensitive to postharvest losses caused by biotic and abiotic factors. The existing technologies and approaches used during plant cultivation, harvest, processing, transportation, and storage can limit the postharvest issues, but further improvements are needed to meet a growing demand for excellent product appearance, combined with superb quality, biosafety, and low economic and environmental cost. This review summarizes our current understanding of lettuce postharvest physiology and genetics with focus on enzymatic discoloration of wounded surfaces and rapid tissue deterioration. Discussed are existing and emerging integrated technologies and approaches that can facilitate achieving outstanding postharvest quality of lettuce products.