The performance of an existing container for orange fruit and two new designs, stacked on a pallet, has
been evaluated for forced-convective precooling using computational fluid dynamics. The focus was on
the fruit cooling rate and the system energy consumption in relation to cooling conditions (airflow rate
and cooling temperature). The new package designs both showed an improved cooling rate and cooling
uniformity, although this improvement is to some extent dependent on the cooling system that is used,
which should also be taken into account when evaluating package design. The energy required to maintain
airflow through the containers during the precooling process was also less for the new containers
due to their lower aerodynamic resistance. These new containers seem a cost-effective way for improving
forced-convective precooling of orange fruit with respect to throughput, fruit quality and operational cost
of the system. In this study, basic information on the containers was obtained to guide future cold-chain
design decisions and changes to existing cooling protocols or cooling systems.