Trade term
Precooling, and the temperature a reefer inherits
Precooling removes heat from the fruit before it is loaded, using equipment built to pull temperature down through a stacked pallet. A transport unit is built to hold a temperature rather than to reach one, so whatever the load is when the doors close is roughly what it stays.
The figures
| When it happens | Before loading |
|---|---|
| What it does | Removes heat from the fruit itself |
| What a transport unit does | Holds a temperature rather than reaching one |
What it changes on an order
You are agreeing a delivered temperature
Ask whether the fruit is precooled and how. Without it, the number on the consignment note describes an intention.
Your route is long
The longer the journey, the more the starting temperature decides the arrival condition, and the less the lorry can correct.
You are investigating an arrival
A load that arrived warm on a correctly running unit was usually warm at loading, and the recorder will show that.
What this note does not settle
- We have not confirmed whether our fruit is precooled. The packing arrangement is not settled and we will not claim a step we cannot yet name.
- This note is about the sequence rather than about equipment. Which method a packer uses is a question for that packer.
A reefer holds the temperature it was handed
Refrigerated vehicles and containers are built to maintain a load rather than to chill one. Their capacity is sized against heat leaking in through walls and doors, and a full load of warm fruit asks for many times that. Load at orchard temperature and the unit runs hard for days, pulls the outside pallets down first, and leaves the middle of the load warm long after the display on the door has reached its set point.
Precooling is the separate operation that removes the heat beforehand. Room cooling parks pallets in a cold store and waits. Forced air cooling drags cold air through the boxes themselves and works in hours instead of days, at the cost of equipment, floor space and packaging vented enough to let air pass. Both cost money and both happen before the lorry arrives.
Ask whether it is inside the price
Citrus travels without precooling more readily than stone fruit or berries, because it respires slowly and forgives a longer journey. That is a tolerance rather than an argument for skipping the step. A load going overland for two days in September and a load going out in January are different problems arriving at the same packhouse.
Put the question in the request for a quotation. Ask whether the fruit will be cooled before loading, by what method, and what pulp temperature the loading document will show. Where the price includes it, write that on the order. Our own arrangements after harvest are unconfirmed, and the details that have to be settled with a packer before a freight booking means anything are set out with the pallet figures.
Talk to the grower
Tell us the variety, the sizes and the delivery week you need. You get a delivered price and what we can commit to in writing, from the person who picks the fruit.
The grower handles enquiries. Response times are still to be confirmed.