Introduction to Precooling Methods for Fruits and Vegetables

Cold storage is already the most important facility for us to store fruits, vegetables and food at present. In order to prolong the preservation purpose and reduce operating costs, pre-cooling is an important link in the cold chain. Pre-cooling is to rapidly cool fruits and vegetables after picking, and the temperature is close to the storage temperature. There are usually three methods:
Vacuum pre-cooling: According to the physical characteristic that the boiling point of water also decreases as the pressure decreases, the pre-cooled food is placed in a vacuum tank and evacuated. When the pressure is reduced to a certain value, the moisture on the surface of the food begins to evaporate and absorbs the latent heat of vaporization. The method of cooling the food itself is the vacuum pre-cooling method.
Cold water pre-cooling: Putting fruits and vegetables into a cooling tank for cooling and spraying cooling with cold water are more widely used in the United States. In Japan, because people are more disgusted with water cut-off and wet cardboard boxes, it is not practical.

However, root vegetables that need to be washed can be combined with washing and widely promoted.

Air pre-cooling: In the pre-cooling warehouse, align the ventilation holes of the cartons and stack them closely together to make a wall. By making a differential pressure on both sides of the wall in some way, the cold air passes through the inside of the carton and directly cools fruits and vegetables. Directly cool fruits and vegetables.