The postharvest industry is expected to supply good quality fruit and vegetables to consumers
throughout the year from various and distant fields. Postharvest products are living and respiring
materials, and from field to fork, several factors influence quality. In this thesis, focus is mainly on
leafy green vegetables. The quality of these delicate products peaks at harvest when they are green
and crisp, but during handling and storage their quality attributes may be deteriorated, resulting in
products of inferior quality when they reach the consumers. The primary aim of this thesis was to
determine the quality changes of leafy green vegetables as effect of harvest season, packaging,
and storage temperature. A novel, continuous measurement of O
2
concentration was used for
determination of respiration rate, which is a key measure in the metabolism of the living product.
Furthermore, sensory analysis was used for describing quality changes, and multispectral imaging
was used for prediction of sensory attributes. Thework is described in a series of papers