Data analytics along the citrus supply chain from farm to consumer to identify the impact of temperature management and other factors on fruit quality

To reduce post-harvest losses of fresh fruit and vegetables, they are stored and transported under refrigerated conditions. We currently do not fully know when and where food quality is lost from farm to fork in the fresh produce supply chain. Fruit quality is influenced by a wide range of factors, amongst others temperature management after harvest. We aim to understand the role of temperature management and other factors affecting fruit quality upon arrival at the consumer. This objective was achieved by analyzing data collected along a citrus supply chain from Greece to Central Europe over six seasons from farm to consumer, with a total of 73 refrigerated shipments examined. We found that there are two groups of seasons with clear differences in their sort-out rate after harvest. Customer complaints do not correlate with the sort-out rate after harvest. This indicates that the sort-out rate is not a meaningful indicator of the quality the consumer receives. For most shipments, the temperature during transport in a refrigerated trailer was close to the optimum range. Customer complaint rates, reflecting fruit end quality, do not directly correlate with transport temperature or shipment duration. Although transport conditions could still affect fruit quality, this is not reflected in the customer complaints. The average temperature in the trailers was significantly influenced by the type of chute used, also known as an air duct. Several trailers had insufficient air distribution or were not cooling to the set temperature and were therefore analyzed in detail to identify potential improvements.