​Coconut is an important economic crop widely cultivated in island and coastal ecosystems in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. Emerging trends in biochemical characterization have highlighted the nutraceutical and nutritional importance of coconut and its products. However, the short shelf life of these products seriously restricts their market potential. Coconut beverages such as coconut water, inflorescence sap and coconut milk have numerous health promoting nutrients, although the highly perishable nature of coconut beverages and products causes significant post-harvest losses. Conventional thermal technologies implemented by the coconut processing industry affect the heat sensitive nutrients and create a negative impact on the color and flavor profiles of the products. Producers have been looking for an efficient alternative to thermal technologies, although most of the emerging non-thermal technologies such as cold plasma, ozone, pulsed light, UV-light, pulsed electric field and high-pressure processing are in lab scale. It is important to understand the practical application of these technologies at industry scale. Also, it is important to analyze the influence and application of these emerging technologies on the quality profile, safety and shelf-life extension of the products. The adulteration rate in coconut products has been increasing along with their prices, making it vital to understand the application of non-destructive tools for authentication.

Coconut water, a naturally-canned tropical beverage, has been gaining popularity in recent years and has drawn the attention world over as a natural and nutritional wellness beverage. The research published thus far on coconut water has mainly focused on its specific uses, biochemical composition and health benefits as well as processing and preservation techniques and has been published mostly in journal articles. Only a few books covering a wide spectrum of coconut water for health and wellness are currently available. This work offers a comprehensive and fully updated overview of coconut water from processing techniques to value addition to safety to nutritional benefits and beyond.