VDH Products Integrates Product Data and AI into Fruit Storage and Ripening Controls

VDH Products is moving its fruit storage and ripening control platforms beyond pure process management toward systems that also account for the condition of the product itself. The company's VASP storage and Proba ripening solutions now integrate energy-saving functionalities, periodic software upgrades, and – as the next development step – fruit-quality data and AI-supported decision-making.

Energy management in a shifting market

Cooling, heating and ventilation can represent a significant share of total energy consumption in fruit storage and ripening facilities. Against a backdrop where solar power, battery storage and dynamic energy contracts are becoming increasingly important for end-users, VDH has built its control equipment to help operators decide when energy is used, how locally generated power can be utilised, and how unnecessary consumption can be trimmed. The company's stated goal is to achieve the required storage or ripening conditions while using energy as intelligently as possible.

Software updates keep existing installations current

Because the control layer is software-based, innovation does not stop at commissioning. VDH delivers periodic software updates that give existing users access to new functionalities and improvements, allowing an installation to continue evolving over time without replacing the complete control system. Extending the useful life and functionality of installed equipment is described as an important part of the company's sustainable-development approach.

Co-development with operators

Many of VDH's developments are created in close cooperation with its users. Their practical experience, feedback and ideas provide information about what actually happens in real storage and ripening facilities, which the company combines with its own control-technology expertise. Jacco Smid, Sales Manager at VDH Products, notes that the best improvements are created together with users, whose hands-on experience combined with the company's control-technology knowledge helps make the systems smarter, more efficient and better suited to daily operation. New developments are therefore grounded in the challenges and opportunities customers encounter in practice rather than in theory alone.

From process control to product-aware control

The next step, according to VDH, is to combine process control with better information about the fruit itself. The company cooperates with specialised technology companies focused on fruit quality, sensor data, data analysis and AI-supported decision-making. By layering fruit-condition data on top of storage or ripening process data, operators gain deeper insight into product condition, quality and development, opening the door to better-informed decisions, improved consistency, reduced product losses and further optimisation of the overall process. In VDH's framing, the aim is control systems that not only know what the installation is doing but increasingly understand what the product actually needs.

A broader sustainability definition

VDH defines sustainability in this context as going beyond energy saving: it encompasses smarter use of available energy, improving existing installations through software, reducing product losses, and continuously developing better solutions together with users and technology partners. Process information, sensor data and intelligent control come together in the company's VASP and Proba solutions, and the future of fruit storage and ripening will increasingly be driven by the combination of process knowledge, product data and intelligent energy management.

Source: Postharvest: Cooling and CA.