Virtual cold chain method to model the postharvest temperature history and quality evolution of fresh fruit - A case study for citrus fruit packed in a single carton

Fruit quality loss is dependent on the temperature control throughout the postharvest cold chain. Previous research mainly focused on optimizing the cooling performance of single unit operations. However, assessing fruit temperature history throughout the entire cold chain is crucial to determine the end quality. This study proposes a virtual cold chain (VCC) method to predict the temperature history and quality loss of packaged fresh fruit, down to each individual fruit, throughout the entire cold chain. The VCC method is based on computational fluid dynamics and kinetic quality modelling. Results show that the difference in quality loss among individual fruit in a carton could reach 11% for a specific cold chain. The maximum difference in the remaining quality at the end of the cold chain between different cold chain scenarios is 23%. The VCC method has a potential to track temperature history and to estimate quality loss of individual fruit in the cargo throughout a cold chain.