ABSTRACT
In biological systems, models are, by denition, a simplication of the real world and, again by denition, will never be true as the only true model is the system itself (Oreskes et al., 1994). In the current context, a mathematical model is dened as an abstract representation expressed in terms of mathematical and/or logical constructs. These can include all sorts of equations (e.g., algebraic, ordinary and partial differential, and integral equations), different types of Boolean expressions (e.g., propositions, predicates, and fuzzy logic), or rule-based expressions (e.g., decision tables, nite state machines and Turing machines) (Nicolai et al., 2005). So far, only few have been applied to postharvest situations. Once a system has been modeled using mathematical constructs, relevant real-life actions affecting the system can be substituted through quantitative reasoning studying their impact. This allows the capture of relations that are impossible to effectively describe otherwise (Staub and Stern, 1997).
