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The authors are grateful to RTI2018-099139-B-C21 project, funded by FEDER-EU/Ministry of Science and Innovation-National Research Agency.

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Castillejo, NoeliaAuthor

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Article

Real-Time Monitoring System for Shelf Life Estimation of Fruit and Vegetables

Publicated to:Sensors. 20 (7): 1860- - 2020-04-01 20(7), DOI: 10.3390/s20071860

Authors: Torres-Sanchez, Roque; Teresa Martinez-Zafra, Maria; Castillejo, Noelia; Guillamon-Frutos, Antonio; Artes-Hernandez, Francisco

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Abstract

The control of the main environmental factors that influence the quality of perishable products is one of the main challenges of the food industry. Temperature is the main factor affecting quality, but other factors like relative humidity and gas concentrations (mainly C2H4, O-2 and CO2) also play an important role in maintaining the postharvest quality of horticultural products. For this reason, monitoring such environmental factors is a key procedure to assure quality throughout shelf life and evaluate losses. Therefore, in order to estimate the quality losses that a perishable product can suffer during storage and transportation, a real-time monitoring system has been developed. This system can be used in all post-harvest steps thanks to its Wi-Fi wireless communication architecture. Several laboratory trials were conducted, using lettuce as a model, to determine quality-rating scales during shelf life under different storage temperature conditions. As a result, a multiple non-linear regression (MNLR) model is proposed relating the temperature and the maximum shelf life. This proposed model would allow to predict the days the commodities will reduce their theoretical shelf-life when an improper temperature during storage or in-transit occurs. The system, developed as a sensor-based tool, has been tested during several land transportation trips around Europe.

Keywords

Cold chainCold-chainDecision-support-systemNetworkPostharvestPredictionPreharvestPrevention of food losseQualityQuality predictive modellingStoragTemperatureTraceabilityWireless sensor networks

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Sensors due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2020, it was in position 14/64, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Instruments & Instrumentation.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 2.23. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 13.77 (source consulted: Dimensions Jun 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-09, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 43
  • Scopus: 57
  • OpenCitations: 43

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-09:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 175.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 173 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 0.25.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.