Ripen Right

Welcome! This interactive Shiny application turns five years of research into practical actions to keep bananas out of the bin and in front of customers.

This app was developed by the Supply-Chain Innovation team — John Archer, Minh Nguyen and Andrew Macnish — to help banana growers, packers, exporters and importers make informed handling decisions throughout the supply chain.

Why this matters

Every year, mixed consignments and temperature slips cost the Australian banana industry millions of dollars in downgraded or dumped fruit. Our project—led by the Department of Primary Industries (Qld) in partnership with Pacific Coast Produce and the End Food Waste CRC—set out to slash that waste from 10 % to just 2 %.

How we built the tool

✓ Monitoring of real-world road, sea and air consignments to pinpoint the three most critical control points.
✓ 40+ laboratory simulation trials recreating those scenarios—varying temperature, time, ethylene exposure and packaging.
✓ More than 2,000 fruit assessed, with 1,443 individual fruits feeding the generalised-linear model that predicts chilling injury risk.
✓ 315 post-ripening fruit assessments underpin the colour-stage model that forecasts shelf-life and market readiness.
✓ Prototype tools tested on monitored airfreight consignments to Singapore and Japan —predictions matched survey reports.

What the models do

Chilling Injury DST: estimates the Chilling Index and likelihood of rejection based on temperature × time below 13 °C for summer fruit.
Colour Development DST: converts your imported temperature and time to Temperature-Time Units (TTU) and into an expected Peel Colour Stage, guiding ripening and marketing decisions.

Quick stats

Chilling Injury Model

1,443 fruit

GLM (binomial) – Temp × Time

Colour Stage Model

315 fruit

nls model – CS = a·TTU^b

Using this app

Choose the decision support tool from the sidebar.
Enter the temperature/time figures taken from your logger.
Read the prediction and adjust handling instructions before the fruit moves to the next step.
Print or share the results to debrief with logistics partners.
The app was developed with generous donations of Ecoganic® fruit, and confirmatory trials showed its similarity to organically and conventionally grown ‘Williams’ Cavendish fruit.

Version 1.0 – 27 May 2025

Disclaimer: Based on or contains data provided by the State of Queensland (Department of Primary Industries). In consideration of the State permitting use of this data you acknowledge and agree that the State gives no warranty in relation to the data (including accuracy, reliability, completeness, currency or suitability) and accepts no liability (including without limitation, liability in negligence) for any loss, damage or costs (including consequential damage) relating to any use of the data. Data must not be used in breach of the privacy laws.

Chilling Injury Decision Support Tool

Enter the temperature and duration of exposure to chilling temperatures. The model will predict the Chilling Index (CI) and % fruit likely to be rejected for summer fruit.

The app was developed with of Ecoganic® fruit, and confirmatory trials showed its similarity to organically and conventionally grown ‘Williams’ Cavendish fruit.

Temperature (°C):

Time (h):

Post-Ripening Colour Development Support Tool

Predict banana Colour Stage from Temperature–Time Units (TTU)

The app was developed with of Ecoganic® fruit, and confirmatory trials showed its similarity to organically and conventionally grown ‘Williams’ Cavendish fruit.

Line 1 Temp (°C):

Line 1 Time (h):

Line 2 Temp (°C):

Line 2 Time (h):