Fresh cut fruits and vegetable have gained penetration and popularity since last few years. These fresh cut commodities are in great demand among the consumers as these are ready-to-eat fresh and provide all essential nutrients. The increasing trend in fresh cut produce tends to increase the investment in research and development to address various issues regarding the product supply, refrigeration, packaging technology, processing and shelf life extension. Cutting and peeling causes physical damage to the raw fruit and vegetable that make them more perishable. In these review latest developments that plays the key role in extending the shelf life of the fresh cut are discussed. These technologies help in reducing the microbial load over the fresh cut without much altering the physicochemical properties. Future researches should consider various combined technologies which allow better preservation as well as supplemented with nutritional factors.

In the present study, disinfectant pre-treatment conditions were optimized for Fresh cut salad vegetables after evaluating bactericidal efficacy of the five different disinfectants viz. Sodium hypochlorite, potassium metabisulfite, citric acid, acetic acid and benzoic acid. Sodium hypochlorite @ 100ppm was selected for disinfectant pretreatment of fresh cut vegetables viz. cucumber, carrot and tomato through physicochemical and microbial analysis. Optimization of pre-treatment conditions viz. temperature, pH and contact time was statistically designed and analyzed using response surface methodology. Numerical optimization of results revealed a temperature of 6.5, 10.0 and 6.5°C; pH 6.0, 7.0 and 7.0; contact time 23.0, 8.0 and 30.0 minutes was found to be optimized for fresh cut cucumber, carrot and tomato disinfectant pretreatment with a desirability level of 94, 94 and 92%, respectively. Shelf life analysis of pre-treated (under optimized conditions) and untreated fresh cut vegetables stored under refrigeration conditions (5-7°C) revealed enhancement in shelf life of treated fresh cut vegetables from 6, 9 and 6 days to 9, 12 and 9 days of fresh cut cucumber, carrot and tomato, respectively. During shelf life period, all physicochemical parameters of pre-treated fresh cut vegetables differed non-significantly along with microbial load under acceptable limits and a good sensory score.