Cooling parameters for fruits and vegetables of different sizes in a hydrocooling system.
Teruel B., Kieckbusch T., Cortez L.
Author Affiliation: UNICAMP/Faculdade de Engenharia Agrícola, C.P. 6011, 13083-970 - Barão Geraldo - Campinas, SP, Brazil.
Scientia Agricola 61 : 655-658
Abstract : The cooling of fruits and vegetables in a hydrocooling system can be a suitable technique. This work aimed to define cooling time for fruits and vegetables of different sizes, presenting practical indices that could be used to estimate cooling time for produce with similar characteristics. Fruits (orange melon - Cucumis melo, mango - Mangifera indica, guava - Psidium guajava, orange - Citrus sinensis, plum - Prunus domestica, lime - Citrus limon, and acerola - Prunus cerasus) and vegetables (cucumber - Cucumis sativus, carrot - Daucus carota, and green bean - Phaseolus vulgaris), were cooled in a hydrocooling system at 1°C. The volume of fruits and vegetables ranged between 8.18 cm3 and 1150.35 cm3, and between 13.06 cm3 and 438.4 cm3, respectively. Cooling time varied proportionally to produce volume (from 8.5 to 124 minutes for fruits, and from 1.5 to 55 minutes, for vegetables). The relationship between volume and time needed to cool fruits (from 1.03 min cm-3 to 0.107 minutes cm-3) and vegetables (from 0.06 minutes cm-3 to 0.12 minutes cm-3) is an index that could be used to estimate cooling time for fruits and vegetables with similar dimensions as those presented in this work.