Donner Strawberry Transportation Tests in Refrigerator-truck for 700 Kilometers

Abstract

Tests were made to evaluate injury of strawberry due to the shock of vibration and in-transit temperature in refrigerator-truck during the transportation for 700 kilometers from Fukuoka to Osaka, and the following results were obtained.
1) The average in-transit temperature in the truck ranged from 7 to 10°C, in spite of the aimed temperature of 5°C.
The highest temperature measured was at the upper space of the load just beneath the roof of the truck, and it seemed due to the heat of sunshine which passed through the roof.
2) On unpaved and uneven roads in strawberryproducing areas, many severe shocks were recorded.
On the refrigerator-truck, the heaviest shocks in transit were recorded in the uppermost packs of the rearmost location.
3) Laboratory test was run in parallel with the road test, and the quality of strawberry was evaluated in terms of weight losses, firmness, bruises, total sugar contents and grade ratings.
(1) The weight loss of transported strawberries (B) was 3.20% where as that of non-transpo-rted (A) was 2.96%.
(2) The ratio of the weight of bruised fruits to initial total weight was 32.7% in (A) and 50.5% in (B).
(3) The firmness of fruits of (B) reduced more than that of (A).
Strawberreis ripened by 40 Percent reached full ripeness after 4 days and were less subjected to injury owing to its high firmness of fruit during the transportation.
(4) Larger strawberries in size were more resistible against vibration injury than smaller ones.