Non-wounding contact-based Inoculation of fruits with fungal pathogens in postharvest.

Background: Fungal pathogens significantly impact the quality of fruits and vegetables at different stages of the supply chain, leading to substantial food losses. Understanding how these persistent fungal infections occur and progress in postharvest conditions is essential to developing effective control strategies.

Results: In this study, we developed a reliable and consistent inoculation protocol to simulate disease spread from infected fruits to adjacent healthy fruits during postharvest storage.