ABSTRACT
We conducted a search of the Ceres2030 postharvest database for studies related to the cold chain, including evidence on interventions related to precooling, cold storage and reefer transport in all the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Of the 1,565 total interventions in the database, 780 interventions (ca. 50%) were on perishable crops. Of these, 311 interventions were for roots/tuber crops, 301 for fruits and 168 for vegetables. Only 22 precooling interventions, including control treatments, were studied for the 13 perishable crops. This is less than 3% of the interventions in the database. Cold storage accounted for 73 interventions (9.3% of the total) focusing on storage in evaporative cooled structures, cold rooms cooled conventionally or using a CoolBot™ in comparison to ambient storage or traditional storage structures. There were no studies on refrigerated transport. Major gaps exist in the evidence base, and there is an obvious need to study these cooling interventions in more countries over a wider range of perishable crops and to include all the value chain actors (precooling, storage and transport).
