Successful storage is a combination of the right fruit stored under the right conditions. If the temperature or oxygen is too high fruit will mature quicker and, if too low, there is a risk of damaging the flesh or fruit developing alcoholic taints. If the carbon dioxide is too high there is a risk of damaging the fruit, if too low the rate of change in background colour from green to yellow will increase.
It is therefore very important not only to check the fruit condition regularly but also the storage conditions. Computer based systems provide automatic control of storage conditions and are essential where low oxygen levels are being used. However the printed output generated from such systems is often difficult to interpret.
It is important that store operators maintain a manual record of store conditions. At least once a day the temperature, CO2 and O2 levels should be entered in a logbook using a separate page for each store.
This provides evidence that the storage conditions for each store have been checked each day and makes it easy to see overall changes in storage conditions during each month. During the monthly inspection of fruit samples the store logbook should be examined.