Intelligent Evaporative Cooling Systems for Post-Harvest Fruit and Vegetable Preservation: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Post-harvest losses of fruits and vegetables are an important bottleneck in food systems of countries around the world, with 30–50% of perishable food items lost between farm and consumer, smallholder farmers in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) with poor cold chain infrastructures facing a disproportionate burden. Evaporative cooling (EC) is a low-cost and energy-efficient alternative to mechanical refrigeration; however, traditional systems are operated in one position and are dependent on climate, which restricts its performance. The combination of Internet of Things (IoT) sensing, machine learning (ML), and the advanced control theory has made intelligent evaporative cooling systems (IECS) adaptive, data-driven platforms that can regulate the environment in real-time and optimise autonomously. This is a systematic literature review that was carried out according to PRISMA 2020, summarising 94 peer-reviewed articles published in 2018–2025 to map the technological landscape, performance indicators, and research directions of the field of post-harvest fruit and vegetable preservation using IECS. Findings indicate that IECS can considerably lower the storage temperatures, increase the shelf life by 50–200%, and reduce energy consumption by 75–90% compared to traditional refrigeration, and the payback period is as short as 1.2 years. In arid conditions, ML models are accurate in prediction with an R2 of 0.98. The gaps in the research identified are a lack of validation in wet climatic conditions, non-existent standardised Ag-IoT protocols, inadequate Food–Energy– Water (FEW) nexus calculation, and no explainable AI (XAI) interfaces. An example of a conceptual framework of four layers synthesised is proposed to direct next-generation research and implementation of the IECS