Development and evaluation on a wireless multi-gas-sensors system for improving traceability and transparency of table grape cold chain

•A WGS2 for table grape cold chain was developed and evaluated.•The key traceability indicators include temperature, humidity, CO2, O2, and SO2.•The shelf life model was built to predict the quality indicators.•Tested and analyzed in two sample table grapes cold chains in China.•Improving the traceability and transparency of the table grape cold chain.

There is increasing requirement to improve traceability and transparency of table grapes cold chain. Key traceability indicators including temperature, humidity and gas microenvironments (e.g., CO2, O2, and SO2) based on table grape cold chain management need to be monitored and controlled. This paper presents a Wireless Multi-Gas-Sensors System (WGS2) as an effective real-time cold chain monitoring system, which consists of three units: (1) the WMN which applies the 433 MHz as the radio frequency to increase the transmission performance and forms a wireless sensor network; (2) the WAN which serves as the intermediary to connect the users and the sensor nodes to keep the sensor data without delay by the GPRS remote transmission module; (3) the signal processing unit which contains embedded software to drive the hardware to normal operation and shelf life prediction for table grapes. Then the study evaluates the WGS2 in a cold chain scenario and analyses the monitoring data. The results show that the WGS2 is effective in monitoring quality, and improving transparency and traceability of table grape cold chains. Its deploy ability and efficiency in implantation can enable the establishment of a more efficient, transparent and traceable table grape supply chain.