**1. Introduction**

Root vegetables are important components of a balanced diet for human health because of their richness in many biologically active compounds. These compounds, collectively termed phytochemicals or functional nutrients, provide numerous desirable health benefits such as anti-oxidative, anti-cancer hypoglycemic, antimicrobial, and immunomodulatory activities beyond basic nutritional benefits [1]. These compounds include terpenes, polyphenols, glucosinolates, phytoestrogens, and carotenoids [2–5]. They form part of a plant's secondary metabolite profile, and often accumulate as part of the plants' response mechanisms to abiotic and biotic stress factors [6–9]. Besides, some of the compounds are widely used as natural colorants in the textile, food, and drug industry. The quantity and stability of these phytochemicals vary greatly among root vegetable cultivars and landraces. Besides, root vegetables

deteriorate rapidly after harvest with significant losses in their morphological (e.g., weight loss, sprouting, greening, and shriveling), phytochemical (e.g., deterioration of phytonutrients and/or accumulation of toxic compounds), physiological (e.g., softening of the tissues, color changes caused by the synthesis of new pigments or destruction of others) and biochemical (e.g., increased rate of respiration) attributes [10, 11]. To produce high quality processed vegetable products, majority of farmers are not only growing new, promising root vegetable varieties, but also minimizing these losses by preserving the root vegetable quality during storage. Various post-harvest technologies, including use of varied pre-storage treatments and storage systems, have been assessed and have shown efficacy in prolonging the shelf-life of fresh root vegetables [11–20]. Therefore, this chapter summarizes information reported on the effect of post-harvest technologies on the quality of the commonly utilized edible root vegetables that include beetroot (*Beta vulgaris* subsp. *vulgaris* L.), carrot (*Daucus carota* L.), cassava (*Manihot esculenta* Crantz), potato (*Solanum tuberosum* L.) and radish (*Raphanus sativus* L.).
