ENVIROMENTAL CONDITION DURING AIR SHIPMENT OF HORTICULTURAL PRODUCTS FROM OKINAWA TO TOKYO

Air shipment affords the quickest possible delivery of horticultural products. The price of air shipped horticultural products are relatively high as most of these products are perishable. Usually the temperature in the cargo compartment is not controlled during flight. Thus, special attention should be paid to procooling prior to shipment. The environmental condition during transportation of horticultural products is an essential parameter for maintaining the quality of perishable products. Commonly horticultural products were loaded by ULD(Unit Load Devices) as a container or pallet in the aircraft (except for small aircraft) . Therefore, inside temperature of the container and cargo compartment came into question. Scarce literature on the relationship between environmental condition and quality changes of horticultural products during air shipment can be found. By the stand point of keeping fresh quality, investigations on the actual condition of air shipments were carried out to improve the technique during the distribution process of fresh horticultural products. Temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, carbon dioxide, ethylene, impacts, and changes in quality during the air shipment of snapbeans, okras and chrysanthemums were measured. Temperature was measured by recording thermometers, relative humidity by recording hygrometers, atmospheric pressure by a strain -guage type pressure sensor, carbon dioxide by testing tubes, ethylene by sampling bags and a gaschromatograph, impacts and vibrations by impact recorders and a 3D accelerometer. Relationships between environmental conditions and quality changes during air shipments were clarified. It was expected from investigations into actual shipments that the ventilation and insulation properties of air freight containers were related to the quality of agricultural products. Aircraft can no directly load and unload trucks into them. The transshipment is inclined to cause shocks and vibrations, and to invite damages within a short time.