Post-harvest Technologies, When and Which Should We Use? Part I

When we extract the fruit from the plant, its senescence begins, the fruit begins to die; from that moment the race begins to keep it with the best quality and condition possible, we must consider in many cases long transits, storage conditions, depending on the origin different processes and logistics of harvesting, etc.Which technology to choose, how to use it and how to do it well in order to prolong the freshness and flavour that we want to have when the consumer receives it, in short: Eating Quality! Post-harvest technologies are often understood to be what we use when we apply some additional, extra to preserve quality and condition more efficiently after packing or as part of this process.?But if we take a closer look, if we really want to achieve a change and a real effect on that quality and condition, we must start from the harvest; because what arrives at packing is what is preserved afterwards, post-harvest technology does not modify or improve quality and condition, it only preserves what arrives at processing! If we start from harvest, we can say that the first thing is the pot, there is a great diversity, qualities, and sizes, there is the ideal harvest pot, given the condition and the fruit that is harvested, then the use of shading, structures and the use of formulas to keep the fruit in "shelter" while it remains in the field. In addition, all kinds of assessments to determine what the quality and condition of that fruit is, that also requires a certain degree of objectivity and we must use equipment designed for such processes. It has been said for a long time that the first thing or the basic technology is the cold, we often take it for granted, but a good pre-cold process contributes in a fundamental way to the preservation of the fruit in good condition, because with it we lower the respiratory rate and we make it "go to sleep", and we stop the senescence process. It is very important to check the functioning of the pre-coolers, the air flows and how they are reaching our fruit, check positions inside the pallet and on the sides, verify that the temperatures are homogeneous, because if I am not achieving the desired effect, it will be time and effort wasted, in addition to the costs involved. Once the fruit is pre-cooled, it generally waits a certain amount of time for processing. Here we have options, depending on what we want to do, in the case of blueberries for example:What we decide to do will depend on the destination of our fruit, the type of fruit, the area, the variety I am packing, the days of transit, my processing capacity, and a lot of other factors, but the most important: the quality and condition of what I am harvesting!