15AGRITECHCAT3 SafePod: New technology for intelligent control of fresh produce storage

长期储存延长了英国种植的苹果和梨的销售期限，但随着对化学品使用的限制越来越严格，这是一个越来越大的挑战。实现这一目标的一个途径是低氧储存，但由于低氧损伤的可能性，这是有风险的。通过提供检测储存苹果中压力发作的手段，SafePod使储存更接近大气成分的容忍极限，从而提高水果质量并最大限度地减少因失调而造成的损失。SafePod通过呼吸特征的变化来检测压力，这些变化表明呼吸转向了有害的无氧呼吸。SafePod是放置在水果店内的一个房间，里面存放着代表整个商店寄售的水果样本。SafePod的空气可以与整个商店的空气隔离，因此可以使用新一代气体传感器测量水果的呼吸特性。该项目的关键研究内容是确定水果呼吸特性的变化与最佳储存环境之间的关系。根据组织特征（如密度和矿物质组成），这可能因水果品种而异，也高度依赖于水果成熟度。研究人员将与该联盟的其他成员密切合作，优化SafePod原型在种植者商店中的使用，并就如何将SafePod数据转化为优化存储策略提供最佳实践指南。

Longer-term storage extends the marketing period for UK grown apples and pears, but is an increasing challenge as restrictions on chemical use become more stringent. One route to achieve this is low O2 storage, but this is risky due to the possibility of low O2 damage. By providing the means to detect the onset of stress in stored apples, SafePod enables storage closer to the tolerance limits of atmospheric composition, thus improving fruit quality and minimising losses due todisorders.SafePod detects stress through changes in respiratory characteristics that indicate a switch to damaging anaerobic respiration. SafePod is a chamber placed within a fruit store which holds a sample of fruit representative of the whole store consignment. The SafePod atmosphere can be isolated from that of the whole store, and so that the respiratory characteristics of fruit can be measured using new-generation gas sensors.The key research component within this project is to determine the relationship between the changes in the respiratory characteristics of the fruit and the optimum storage environment. This is expected to differ by fruit variety according to tissue characteristics such as density and mineral composition, and also to be highly dependent on fruit maturity. The researchers will work closely with the rest of the consortium to optimise the use of the prototype SafePod in growers' stores and to provide Best Practice Guides on how to translate the SafePod data to optimise storage strategies.