BananaS uNDEr SurveillancE
Bananas and dataloggers are actually closely related.
We bananas cannot grow all over the world as yet. As a plant we need tropical climates to grow vibrant and fresh. Thus, we must be transported overseas to be enjoyed at other latitudes.
Thanks to our traveling nature everyone can enjoy our delicious flavor (recall we are tireless travelers in our post “Globetrotter Bananita”) . But, to be tasty, our transport must be done under very specific conditions. Only this makes us bananas be near perfect ripeness and last for several days at your home.
How do we bananas get through long distance travel?
To achieve long-distance trips we bananas travel in refrigerated containers or, in other words, reefers (find out more in our post “Reefers origin”). Reefers allow us to maintain uniform temperatures along the whole journey. A journey that can last weeks. Therefore, temperature monitoring has become essential for the transport of perishable goods like us. For this purpose, an ingenious device is installed in all containers to monitor our travelling conditions in real time: dataloggers.
It is crucial for us bananas to maintain uniform temperatures from the moment we leave the tree.
We cannot get too warm because we ripen fast, nor can we experience too low temperatures, whereupon dark spots would appear in our skin and we would not ripen properly. During our journey we must almost reach a state of hibernation to not ripen. Reefers must keep temperatures in the range between 13 and 14°C, and relative humidities between 90-95%. If a single banana has not been kept in these conditions, the quality of an entire ship can be ruined. Hence the importance of dataloggers and their real-time monitoring.
A datalogger (also data logger or data recorder) “is an electronic device that records data over time or in relation to location, either with a built-in instrument or sensor or via external instruments and sensors. They are generally small, battery powered, portable, and equipped with a microprocessor, internal memory for data storage, and sensors”. (Source: Wikipedia).
For weeks-long journeys over sea and land one of the most limiting concerns is temperature. Especially in sea voyages, it is essential to know what is going on. Here dataloggers play a key role. As noted above, they allow recording temperatures while bananas are on board. Dataloggers provide an accurate picture of the environmental conditions during the trip.
You will see that it is not just you, “citizens of the world”, as Socrates would say, that can benefit from trips in trains, airplanes, vessels, … with pleasant and controlled temperatures, we bananas also take advantage of traveling in well-conditioned spaces ;-).
