Tzipi Freidkin and Zafrir Grinhut

In order to deal with the expected world food crisis, in which there will not be enough supply of food to feed the growing world population, it is necessary on the one hand to increase agricultural production and on the other hand reduce postharvest losses. Recent estimations of postharvest food losses by various world leading organizations, such as FAO, UNEP, USDA and OECD suggest that about one third of the total global amount of food production, estimated at $1 trillion per year, is lost during the postharvest food supply chain. Furthermore, postharvest losses and food waste of fruit and vegetables, which are particularly perishable commodities, are estimated to be around 45%! This study provides first estimations of postharvest food losses of major fruit and vegetable crops in Israel.