Postharvest Management of Fruits: Navigating the Affordability, Efficacy, and Non-Destructive Quality Evaluation of Thermal Versus Non-Thermal Interventions

Postharvest losses (PHLs) present a critical bottleneck to global food security, with fresh fruit losses reaching 23–40% due to rapid physiological deterioration, mechanical stress, and microbial decay. This review evaluates the metabolic cascades, including respiration kinetics, transpiration, and hormone-mediated factors, that govern fruit degradation. We reviewed thermal and non-thermal treatments for affordability, including thermal interventions such as hot water treatment (HWT), microwave treatment, and radio frequency treatment, alongside emerging non-thermal preservation modalities such as edible coatings, cold plasma atmospheric treatments, and ultrasound processing. The review places particular emphasis on climacteric tropical fruits such as mango, papaya, banana, and citrus, for which postharvest losses and preservation challenges are especially acute due to their climacteric nature. To address the quality tracking highlighted by modern commercial chains, this review integrates an assessment of non-destructive quality evaluation technologies, focusing on near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging (HSI), and electronic noses (E-noses). Overall, this review seeks to deliver a unified blueprint, arguing that sustainable postharvest preservation can benefit from context-specific hurdle-technology concepts that align accessible postharvest treatments with monitoring networks. We synthesise current evidence on individual thermal, non-thermal, and sensing technologies and use this to motivate potential hurdle strategies and treatment–monitoring pairings for diverse fruit supply chains.