PRE COOLING
Prepared by: Hamid Salari
PRE-COOLING
Good temperature management =
reduce post harvest losses
Field heat = high rate of respiration
Rapid removal of field heat
Widely used for highly perishable fruits
and vegetables
Product’s lowest safe temperature
Room cooling:
Room cooling is a relatively
simple method
Needs only a refrigerated room
The produce is packed in
containers
The rate of cooling is rather
slow
It may take hours or even days
to cool depending on:
•what kind of product it is
•the size and nature of the container
•and the temperature
•velocity of the circulating air.
Forced-air cooling
Rapid way of using air to cool
produce
Cold air is forced to flow through
the inside of each container
Covered tunnel with and exhaust
fan at one end
Grapes, strawberries and
raspberries are cooled in less than an
hour
Cooling rate depends on:
the air temperature
rate of air flow
75-90 percent faster than room
cooling
Two types are forced air tunnel and
serpentine cooling
Hydro-cooling
Dumping produce into cold water
or running cold water over produce
cleaning at the same time
reduces water loss and wilting
Use of a disinfectant in the water
is recommended to reduce the spread
of diseases
not appropriate for berries,
potatoes to be stored, sweet potatoes,
bulb onions, garlic
Water removes heat about five
times faster than air
Well water temperatures is in10-
15 C range
°
If hydro-cooling water is
recirculated, it should be chlorinated
to minimize disease problems.
Top or liquid icing
In top icing, crushed ice is
added to the container over the
top of the produce by hand or
machine
For liquid icing, slurry of water
and ice is injected into produce
packages through vents or
handholds
Icing methods work well with
high-respiration commodities
such as sweet corn and broccoli
One pound of ice will cool
about three pounds of produce
from 30 °C to 5 °C
Water drainage holes are
required in the box
Products can be iced Products damaged by
direct contact with ice
Artichoke Strawberry
Asparagus Blueberry
Beets Raspberry
Broccoli Tomatoes
Cantaloupes Squash
Carrots Beans
Cauliflower Cucumbers
Endive Garlic
Green onion Okra
Leafy greens Bulb onion
Radish Lettuce
Spinach Herbs
Sweet corn
Watermelon
Vacuum cooling
As the vacuum pressure
increases, water within the plant
evaporates and removes heat from
the tissues
This system works best for leafy
crops, such as lettuce, which have a
high surface-to-volume ratio
To reduce water loss, water is
sometimes sprayed on the produce
prior to placing it in the chamber
This process is called hydrovac
cooling
When the pressure is lowered to
4.6 mm Hg, water “boils” off at 0 °C
from all over the leaf surface. The
boiling effect draws heat for
vaporization
The cooling time is usually in the
order of 20to30 minutes
Evaporative cooling
zero energy cool
chamber is working under
this principle
Disadvantage is cooling
limited by water holding
capacity of the air.
