Development of a Fungal Risk Monitor for the next generation of intelligent containersaper

The global food logistics play an important role in our daily lives. Fruits, meat and other food products are transported all over the world. This fact comes with challenges which have to be solved for a sustainable and economical food supply. For example, fruits farmed in South America are usually transported by cargo ships over 21 days to Europe. During this long trip, the fruits could already start to ripen or turn moldy. In situations where a shipment of produce have already turned bad, the food products will have to be discarded away, with losses that can amount up to millions of euros every year. This paper presents a concept for a Fungal Risk Monitor (FRM) which could minimize losses through early warning in the event of stressful environmental conditions. The concept aims to tackle the logistical challenges involved in banana transport. The FRM consists of a sensor network which measures environmental conditions at the banana farm and during the transport inside the container. Based on the results from the “Intelligent Container”, the measurement data is collected centrally and the information can be used to calculate the risk of a fungal contamination during transport. In addition, the here discussed sensor network in the form of a banana box showed its ability to measure mold triggering conditions with accuracy. This is thereby the first step to the FRM and represents the container environment sensor network.