Best Practice: Follow company policy on receiving quality expectations. Communicate to Strella when a load is rejected to help anticipate inventory fluctuations.

Strella quality preferences:

• Pack date: Fruit received with 21 days from pack date

• Receiving pulp temp: Between 56-60 F

• Receiving firmness: At least 45 Newtons

• No visible shoulder break

• Pallet condition: All pallets must have 48 standard cases, be undamaged, stacked square, have corner boards and banding, and nothing blocking airflow through the cases.

Best Practice: Try to minimize dissimilar fruit in each room zone. Communicate to your supplier if there is excessive variety in products received.

• One Country of Origin (especially if mixing countries from S. America and North/Central America)

• One banana type (conventional vs organic)

• One variety (cavendish vs. plantains)

• One supplier

• No greater than 7-day pack date variance

Pair fruit with similar stage goals and shipment dates in the same room/zone.

• No greater than 24 hours difference in target dates for the same room.

• Minimize split stage goals in the same room.

• Minimize mid-cycle target date and stage goal changes.

Enter the first shipment as the target date to manage shipments over multiple days.

• Select the target date based on the first planned shipment date.

• Update the target date after the 1st shipment has been recorded.

• Repeat this process if there are any subsequent shipments.

• Only update the stage goal if you follow a split color program and/or color progression is intended.

Time in Facility: Date of shipment - date of receiving

Best Practice: Between 4-6 days for optimal ripening performance. Fruit held for greater than 6 days is likely to ripen beyond the intended stage goal and will have lower shelf life at retail.

Strella will automatically start the cycle when room loading procedures are complete and the optimal cycle length is reached.

Important Room Loading Steps

• Ensure staff are following all physical and electronic room loading procedures.

• Always complete room loading procedures on the day fruit is received. This ensures appropriate time in facility calculations, maximizes the available cycle length, and preserves fruit quality.

How Strella Selects Cycle Length

Depending fruit characteristics, room conditions, and stage goals Strella may hold fruit for a period before starting the cycle.

• Time in Room: Target date - load date (completed by facility)

• Cycle Length: Target date - gas start (initiated by Strella)

For optimal ripening performance, clients should load rooms with a minimum available cycle length of 4 - 6 days unless other extenuating circumstances arise.