Improving quality control and transparency in honey peach export chain by a multi-sensors-managed traceability system

Abstract

China is the world leader in peach production and export. Peaches are prone to rapid deterioration after harvest, especially when honey peach export chain always is longer and complex. Both traceability and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) are considered as the effective tools to improve quality control and chain transparency. This paper presents an effort to develop and evaluate a multi-sensors-managed traceability system for honey peach export chain. The key traceable information and quality control point were identified based on the principles of HACCP; a traceability system, integrated multi-sensors and a HACCP based quality control plan, was developed to monitor identified traceable information in real-time and provide the quality evaluation and control decision; The system was evaluated and validated at a sampled honey peach export chain from Shandong, China to Singapore. The results show that the critical ambient parameters (CAPs) in the honey peach export chain are temperature, relative humidity (RH), O2, CO2 and ethylene. The temperature influences the change of RH, CO2 and ethylene. The traceability system can improve the transparency and quality control by tracing the CAPs in honey peach export chain and provide the tracking service. The quality loss of honey peach export chain decreased from 25% to 30% to below 13% based two years’ statistics with the system application.