FOREWORD AND PREFACE

FOREWORD

The 5th International Postharvest Symposium was attended by about 600 delegates coming from 51 countries. The 305 papers, published in this issue of Acta Horticulturae, provide a good overview of the high scientific level of the event. The cultural approaches, the research topics, and the methods used clearly indicate that Postharvest Science has definitively evolved into a multidisciplinary field, in which fruitful co-operations among scientists with different backgrounds are now frequently established, and is leading to advanced results. One of the aims of the Symposium was precisely that of offering participants the best opportunity to discuss, in a truly international context, on the different and interacting topics and research issues related to Postharvest.

Fruits, vegetables and flowers with their shape and color are the result of natural processes that require the presence of factors as soil, light, water and air. The human being is able, at least in part, to modulate them such as a painter does with color that is, in general, the most immediate and attractive parameter of horticultural produce. Kandinskij once stated: “The starting point is the study of the color and of its effect on the human being”. Postharvest Science is strongly related to this assertion: in fact, it studies, together with other important parameters, the formation, the evolution and the maintenance of fruit, vegetable and flower color to primarily attract and delight the consumers. For this reason we have chosen a specifically created painting as cover image of this Acta issue.

The success of the 5th International Postharvest Symposium has been the result of the work and the support of a number of persons, public institutions, and private enterprises. We in particular want to thank the colleagues of the Italian Postharvest Working Group that organized the event and the Chamber of Commerce of Verona, the Italian Ministry for Agricultural and Forestry Policy (MiPAF), and Veneto Region for their generous contributions.

Pietro Tonutti, Convener and Fabio Mencarelli, Coordinator of the Scientific Committee

PREFACE

The papers contained in this volume of Acta Horticulturae report the Proceedings of the Fifth International Postharvest Symposium. Keynote speakers and authors of selected contributed oral and poster presentations were given the opportunity to submit a manuscript for publication.

These manuscripts were reviewed by the symposium Editors and Editorial Board. Only those papers judged suitable for publication following the authors consideration of reviewer suggestions appear in this volume of Acta Horticulturae.

The ISHS acknowledges and appreciates the contribution of all editors and reviewers. They have made a significant contribution to improving the quality of this publication.

The ISHS Board of Directors