OFD TABLE GRAPE PACKING PROTOCOL

MOULD MANAGEMENT

The grape should be picked, packed within 6 hours of harvest. Packed boxes must be cooled to between 7/8 to 15/16 of the initial field heat. Modern forced air pre-coolers should achieve this within 6 to 10 hours. The grape should be further cooled to -0.5°C within a maximum of 48 hours after harvesting. Mature grape will not freeze at this temperature. The refrigera tors should not set below -1°C, to avoid freez ing occurring, notably on the pedicels. The pulp temperature must be measured from grape in the centre of the pallets as well as external temperatures, to ensure thorough cooling. The set temperature of the refrigera tors must never be below -0.5°C, to avoid chill damage, especially to sensitive thin pedicels and laterals. The set temperatures and ambi ent air temperatures in all cooling rooms and pulp temperatures must be monitored and recorded and the instruments used must be checked and calibrated daily. 1. The grapes must be harvested in the cool of the morning, before the temperature exceeds +25°C. This is critical as later cool

The packers must not cause scissor cuts, as these are primary sites of infection on arrival in the UK. Bunches where the pedicel attach ment is weak are not suitable for long transit, as the open wounds are high risk for infection or bleaching. This can be avoided by not using CCPU. Care should be taken to avoid over handling, especially turn bunches over which loosens berry attachment and breaks stems. Product needing heavy selection is not suitable, such as excessively large bunches or compact bunches. COOL CHAIN Table grapes need to be cooled as quickly as possible after harvest. One flow process must be used with a downward trend of tempera ture, avoiding increasing the temperature at any stage. I.e. pick pack into final packaging, refrigerated then cold storage. Otherwise de hydration and mould development will occur. Product should be harvested and packed on the same day and not held over. Condensa tion at any stage must be avoided.

ing with a high differential will lead to de hydration and deterioration. Avoid picking when there is high humidity that leads to condensation on berries. Free moisture encourages mould. 2. The grapes must be placed in a cooled environment in a maximum of 2 hours af ter harvest to begin field heat removal, less than +25°C with high humidity, with a downward temperature trend. 3. The grapes should be processed in an air conditioned / cooled packhouse. The packhouse temperature should be cool er than the external temperature, but not below the dew point, to avoid condensa tion. Typically the packhouse temperature would be +18 to 23°C. The relative humid ity should be 85 to 95%, through fogging or wet wall coolers. 4. The packed grapes must be placed into rapid cooling (forced air precooling) in a maximum of 4 hours from arriving in the packhouse (a maximum of 6 hours after harvest).

5. The rapid cooler (forced air precooler) must cool the grapes to between 7/8 and 15/16 of the field heat. The air delivery temperature of the rapid coolers must be managed to avoid condensation build up, noting that the relative humidity should be high at 90 to 95%. 6. After rapid cooling, the product should be transferred to a conventional coldstore and cooled to a uniform temperature of -0.5°C, in a maximum of 48 hours. The air delivery temperature of the refrigerators must not be set below -0.5°C. The Relative Humidi ty should be 90 to 95%. It is important that cooled product is not exposed to warm en vironments as it will lead to condensation. Which increase the risk of mould develop ment, splitting and sulphur damage. 7. The optimum pulp temperature of the Grapes must range from -0.5°C to +0.5°C when dispatched. 8. The ideal transport temperature is -0.5°C to +0.5°C. The lorry refrigerators must not be turned off at any point.

ORIGIN FRUIT DIRECT Table Grape Packing Protocol | 2023 / 2024

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