................................................................................................................................. ii Opsomming ........................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... vi Table of contents .................................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1: General introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review ................................................................................................. 10 Chapter 3: Resistance to airflow, cooling characteristics and energy consumption of pomegranate fruit inside ventilated cartons during precooling................................................ 57 Chapter 4: Effect of internal packaging, stacking and humidification on pomegranate fruit moisture loss of inside ventilated cartons during precooling.................................................. 82 Chapter 5: Effect of relative humidity on pomegranate quality under simulated ambient storage conditions .................................................................................................................... 99 Chapter 6: General discussion and conclusion ..................................................................... 113 This thesis is a compilation of manuscripts where each chapter is an individual entity and some repetition between chapters has, therefore, been unavoidable. Language and styles used in this thesis are in accordance with the requirements of the International Journal of Food Science and Technology. Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za