Steven A. Sargent

About

Steven A. Sargent is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Horticultural Sciences at the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. His research focuses on determining the impact of current and novel techniques and technologies on the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables during harvest, handling, and storage operations. He has developed extension materials based on his research findings and new scientific developments, which are presented to relevant clientele groups. Sargent has a strong international collaboration portfolio, working with institutions such as Embrapa in Brazil, the University of São Paulo, and the Federal University of Sergipe, and is fluent in Portuguese and intermediate in Spanish. His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering and M.S. and B.S. degrees in Horticulture from Michigan State University. Throughout his career, he has received numerous awards and honors, including international and national recognitions, and has contributed significantly to postharvest technology research, including the development of practical tools such as the FoodTransport app and various publications on postharvest handling, storage, and quality preservation of horticultural crops.

Research topics

• Horticulture
• Biology
• Botany
• Environmental science
• Economics
• Medicine
• Surgery
• Agricultural science
• Operations management
• Engineering

Selected publications

• Mango Postharvest Best Management Practices Manual

  EDIS · 2020 · 52 citations

  Improving the quality and consistency of the fresh mangos that are available to consumers in the United States is an important goal of the National Mango Board (NMB). The NMB-funded project, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Mango Supply Chain to Improve Mango Quality (referred to hereafter as the Mango Quality Project), was conducted from December 2007 through April 2009 to identify impediments to successfully meeting that goal. The final deliverable of the Mango Quality Project is this best man…

  DOI

• Guide to Identifying and Controlling Postharvest Tomato Diseases in Florida

  EDIS · 2020 · 24 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Pathogens are present in all tomato production areas and are most numerous when the weather becomes warm and wet. Movement of weather fronts or tropical storms through production areas can also affect the susceptibility of tomato fruit to decay. Fruit decays can be minimized by the employment of strict sanitation measures along with careful handling. This bulletin is designed to supplement field scouting and identification guides by a) describing postharvest decay pathogens important to Florida…

  DOI

• Harvest of Southern Highbush Blueberry with a Modified, Over-the-Row Mechanical Harvester: Use of Soft-Catch Surfaces to Minimize Impact Bruising

  Agronomy · 2021 · 21 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Harvest of fresh market, southern highbush blueberries (SHB) is labor intensive and costly, leading to a demand for alternative harvest methods. Recent research has shown potential for mechanically harvesting blueberries with minimal bruising by using a modified over-the-row (OTR) harvester. For two harvests, SHB cultivars Optimus and Vireo were either hand-harvested (HH) or mechanically harvested (MH) by two commercial harvesters, one unmodified with standard hard-catch surfaces (HCS) or by the…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Examining preharvest genetic and morphological factors contributing to lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) shelf-life

  Scientific Reports · 2024-03-19 · 18 citations

  articleOpen access

  Lettuce is a highly perishable horticultural crop with a relatively short shelf-life that limits its commercial value and contributes to food waste. Postharvest senescence varies with influences of both environmental and genetic factors. From a larger pool of romaine lettuce genotypes, we identified three genotypes with variable shelf lives and evaluated their leaf morphology characteristics and transcriptomic profiles at preharvest to predict postharvest quality. Breeding line 60184 had the sho…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Impact of Early Potato Desiccation Method on Crop Growth, Skinning Injury, and Storage Quality Maintenance

  American Journal of Potato Research · 2021 · 11 citations

  DOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jeffrey K. Brecht

  University of Florida

  120 shared

• Fernando Maul

  Universidad del Valle de Guatemala

  96 shared

• Donald J. Huber

  68 shared

• Mark A. Ritenour

  University of Florida

  32 shared

• Adrian D. Berry

  University of Florida

  30 shared

• Bala Rathinasabapathi

  30 shared

• Ben Nichols

  U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory

  29 shared

• Cristiane Alves

  U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory

  29 shared

Awards & honors

• Fellow, American Society for Horticultural Science (2021)
• Honorary Professor, Universidad del Santa, Food Technology D…
• Honorary Member, Florida State Horticulture Society (2018)
• Researcher of the Year, Florida Fruit & Vegetable Associatio…
• The Presidential Gold Medal, Florida State Horticulture Soci…

Similar researchers at University of Florida

• Donald R. McCartyh-61
• Robert J. Ferlh-60