Test chamber to analyse post-harvest climatic effects on fruit

One of the main interests of fruit producers is that their products reach the final consumer in the best possible conditions. This condition is very critical in climacteric fruits since the ripening process stops when the fruit is harvested. From that moment, and until it is received by the final consumer, the fruit deteriorates. Therefore, it is relevant to be able to determine the factors that influence this deterioration. It is known that temperature and humidity play a predominant role during the post-harvest process, since they favour the softening and dehydration of the fruit. There are studies that have measured these variables in the environment of the fruit from the moment it is harvested until it reaches packing. To be able to evaluate how much each magnitude of these variables affects in relation to the time in which the fruit has been exposed to said magnitudes in that period, a test chamber has been built capable of reproducing, in the laboratory, controlled conditions of said variables with fruits in motion, simulating transport conditions, to establish a mathematical model that predicts the useful life of the fruit based on the changes it has experienced during its transport from the farm to the packing. However, this camera is not capable of simulating real harvest conditions, such as the sudden changes in temperature and humidity experienced by the fruit when it changes condition (such as going from being exposed to the sun to being placed in the shade in the storage area). This paper presents the construction of a new climatization chamber that can reproduce the temperature and humidity gradients that occur in the period under study.