POSTHARVEST QUALITY/PHYTOTOXICITY OF FRESH COMMODITIES SUBJECTED TO MB ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS

The postharvest quality of fresh commodities is of paramount importance for consumption and successful competition in the domestic and global marketplace. However, the maintenance of commodity quality demands constant vigilance because of their perishable nature, horticultural diversity, biology/biochemistry, utility and market/consumer preferences. Furthermore, the imposition of regulatory quarantine disinfestation treatments by various trading countries to exclude alien pests/diseases adds another constraint to the already complex task of quality maintenance. Since the inception of the MB ban, efforts have been ongoing in searching both chemical and non-chemical MB alternatives for postharvest fresh commodities. Methyl iodide (MI) was reported as a fumigant lethal to several insects including codling moth larvae and with no known toxic effects on plants at the concentrations tested (Lindgren, 1938). More recently, Ohr et al. (1996) demonstrated MI to be an effective preplant soil fumigant, but its efficacy/phytotoxicity on postharvest fresh commodities are unknown. We teste