Experimental analysis of the conservation conditions and development of a traceability device for fruit products

• Autor(a) principal: Morais, Diogo Cerqueira
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/10884
• topic: Avaliação; Conservação; Desperdicio Alimentar; Produtos Frutícolas; Sistema de Monitorização; Transporte; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia Eletromecânica

Fruit and vegetables are often subject to conditions during storage and transport which in no way promote the maintenance of their biological properties. As a result of this loss of quality, there is a decrease in product appreciation. But more important than the loss of economic value is safety and food waste. This dissertation involved an experimental study characterized by the evaluation of the conservation conditions inside the conservation chambers of fruit, namely peach and cherry producers in the Beira Interior region, Portugal. This study consisted of monitoring during two campaigns, 2018 and 2019, the temperature and relative humidity of the conservation air using several “LASCAR ELECTRONICS” dataloggers, arranged in different boxes located at different positions and heights on a pallet. With the results, it was made the characterization of the conservation environment to which the fruit products were subjected, as well as the dimensioning of a monitoring system. However, the monitoring system used does not allow real-time traceability of parameters influencing product quality. Remote monitoring systems, whose fundamental requirements relate to range and autonomy, make use of communications technologies to map characteristic crop parameters to reduce the unnecessary application of resources or materials. A prototype was developed with the function of monitoring the boxes of fruit products during transport between the producer and the distribution center. This device is composed of an ARDUINO UNO Rev3 microcontroller that acquires every 5 minutes of temperature and relative humidity through a DHT 11 sensor. It has a SIM800L module which gives it the ability to communicate in real-time via GSM. It also incorporates a 3.7 V - 2600mAh battery which gives you an approximately 60-hour power range. By acquiring temperature and relative humidity values, the system allows the producer to remotely control their product during the most critical stages of the cold chain, transportation, and storage at the distribution center. Although temperature and humidity data can be used by the producer to ensure the quality of their product upon delivery to the distribution center, location history allows for the optimization of transportation routes to extend product life., which, in turn, is reflected in the increased economic revenue of SMEs and the reduction of food waste.