Heterogeneity of the remaining lifespan of table grapes in refrigerated transportation

Abstract

This work aimed to show heterogeneities in shelf life of table grapes from a same batch during road refrigerated transportation. The monitoring of temperature and relative humidity of air was done with a wireless sensor network strategically distributed among grapes boxes and pallets. The ambient conditions and time of exposure were associated with a linear predictive model of water loss in order to estimate fruits shelf life. Results showed that the loss of dynamic life of grapes varied according to the box position on different pallets within the refrigerated transport vehicle, due to differences in the conditions that fruits were exposed to. It was observed high heterogeneity in shelf life of the evaluated batch of grapes during transportation, with differences of 71 days between grape boxes. With that, one can conclude that these differences must be taken into account in the following stages of grapes cold chain.