Fresh-Cut Potatoes: Current Challenges and Emerging Strategies for Quality Preservation and Shelf-Life Extension

Fresh-cut potatoes are among the most widely consumed minimally processed vegetables owing to their convenience, versatility, and suitability as ready-to-cook products. However, the peeling and cutting operations required during processing inevitably disrupt tissue integrity, triggering a cascade of physiological, biochemical, and microbiological responses that accelerate product deterioration during storage. Increased respiration, oxidative stress, enzymatic browning, moisture loss, texture degradation, metabolic reprogramming, nutrient depletion, and microbial proliferation collectively reduce sensory quality, consumer acceptance, and shelf life. This review comprehensively examines the biological mechanisms underlying these deterioration processes, with particular emphasis on wound-induced physiological responses, phenylpropanoid metabolism, enzymatic browning, cell wall remodelling, metabolic reprogramming, and microbial spoilage. It also critically discusses conventional and emerging preservation strategies, including refrigeration, packaging systems, edible coatings, natural preservatives, and non-thermal technologies, highlighting their mechanisms of action, advantages, limitations, and industrial applicability. Finally, this review identifies key knowledge gaps and future research priorities, emphasizing the need for integrated hurdle approaches that combine sustainable preservation technologies to enhance product quality, safety, shelf life, and resource use efficiency while meeting both consumer and industrial demands.