Radio frequency heating for postharvest control of pests in agricultural products: A review

•RF energy for disinfestation of agricultural products is comprehensively reviewed.•Principle, differential heating and uniformity improvement of RF systems are analyzed.•RF treatment protocols for fresh fruits and dry products are provided and compared.•Recommendations for future research on RF disinfestations are proposed.

Radio frequency (RF) treatment is one of the most promising physical disinfestation methods in agricultural products due to rapid heating, deep penetration depth, and leaving no chemical residues. This paper focuses on reviewing uses of RF energy for disinfestation of agricultural products. It provides a brief introduction on the basic principle of RF heating technology, analyzes the differential heating of pests in host products at RF range, and discusses the factors influencing the RF heating uniformity and the possible methods to improve heating uniformity by computer simulations. This paper presents a comprehensive review of recent progresses in developing RF treatment protocols for disinfesting fresh fruits and dry products, and recommendations for future research to effectively achieve the required RF heating uniformity and bridge the gap between laboratory research and industrial applications.