Mixed-Load Compatibility & Will These Ride Together?
Checks temperature
Pick a basket and the tool judges every pair on temperature, humidity, ethylene and odor from the USDA Handbook 66 / UC-Davis compatibility groups — then splits the basket into the fewest compatible loads.
Build your load
3/8Tap commodities to add or remove. Grouped by AH-66 storage class.
Apple | Carrot | Broccoli | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | ✕ | ✕ | |
| Carrot | ✕ | ✕ | |
| Broccoli | ✕ | ✕ |
Next: do not co-load — separate the basket into the 3 loads above. The binding conflict is Ethylene; pulling the ethylene producers (and dry-store onions/garlic) into their own reefer fixes most splits.
Verdict = worst of four axes (temperature overlap, humidity overlap, ethylene producer↔sensitive, strong odor↔absorber), per USDA Handbook 66 / UC-Davis compatibility groups.
Mixed-load compatibility — key facts
- Axes judged
- temperature, humidity, ethylene, odor
- Verdict
- worst of the four axes
- Classic clash
- ethylene producer vs sensitive
- Dry exception
- onion / garlic at 65–75% RH
- Safe temp rule
- warmest item's minimum
- Split logic
- fewest loads with no hard conflict
- Source
- USDA AH-66 / UC-Davis chart
- Privacy
- Runs in your browser; nothing uploaded
One wrong neighbour can spoil a whole reefer
Fresh produce doesn't store in isolation — what it travels with matters as much as the temperature. An apple shedding ethylene next to a box of lettuce browns the leaves; an onion at the wrong humidity sweats and taints the apples beside it; a banana taken too cold to please a crate of broccoli suffers chilling injury that never recovers. The USDA and UC-Davis solved this by grouping commodities into compatibility classes, but reading a wall chart for a real mixed basket is slow and error-prone.
This database does it live. Build your basket and it scores every pair on the four axes that actually cause loss, surfaces the binding conflict, and — when items can't all ride together — partitions them into the minimum number of compatible loads with the right shared temperature for each. Use it alongside the Cold-Chain Cooling Rate and Modified-Atmosphere Packaging tools to plan the whole post-harvest chain.
Commodity reference (USDA AH-66 / UC-Davis groups)
| Commodity | Group | Temp (°C) | RH (%) | Ethylene out | Ethylene sens. | Odor out | Chill-sensitive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broccoli | 1 | 0–1 | 95–100 | V.high | High | High | No |
| Carrot | 1 | 0–1 | 95–100 | Low | High | Low | No |
| Lettuce | 1 | 0–1 | 95–100 | Low | High | Low | No |
| Spinach | 1 | 0–1 | 95–100 | Low | High | Low | No |
| Cabbage | 1 | 0–1 | 95–100 | Low | Mod | High | No |
| Cauliflower | 1 | 0–1 | 95–100 | Low | High | High | No |
| Celery | 1 | 0–1 | 95–100 | Low | Mod | Low | No |
| Leek | 1 | 0–1 | 95–100 | Low | Mod | V.high | No |
| Mushroom | 1 | 0–1 | 90–95 | Low | Mod | Low | No |
| Apple | 2 | 0–1 | 90–95 | V.high | Low | Mod | No |
| Pear | 2 | 0–1 | 90–95 | High | Mod | Low | No |
| Apricot | 2 | 0–1 | 90–95 | High | Mod | Low | No |
| Peach | 2 | 0–1 | 90–95 | High | Mod | Low | No |
| Plum | 2 | 0–1 | 90–95 | Mod | Mod | Low | No |
| Table grape | 2 | 0–1 | 90–95 | Low | Low | Low | No |
| Kiwifruit | 2 | 0–1 | 90–95 | Low | High | Low | No |
| Sweet cherry | 2 | 0–1 | 90–95 | Low | Low | Low | No |
| Strawberry | 2 | 0–1 | 90–95 | Low | Low | Low | No |
| Dry onion | 3 | 0–1 | 65–75 | Low | Low | V.high | No |
| Garlic | 3 | 0–1 | 65–75 | Low | Low | V.high | No |
| Orange | 4 | 3–8 | 90–95 | Low | Mod | Mod | Yes |
| Lemon | 4 | 10–13 | 85–90 | Low | Mod | Mod | Yes |
| Potato | 4 | 4–7 | 90–95 | Low | Mod | Low | Yes |
| Snap beans | 4 | 4–7 | 90–95 | Low | Mod | Low | Yes |
| Cucumber | 5 | 7–10 | 90–95 | Low | High | Low | Yes |
| Eggplant | 5 | 8–12 | 90–95 | Low | Mod | Low | Yes |
| Bell pepper | 5 | 7–10 | 90–95 | Low | Mod | Low | Yes |
| Okra | 5 | 7–10 | 90–95 | Low | Mod | Low | Yes |
| Watermelon | 5 | 7–10 | 85–90 | Low | High | Low | Yes |
| Muskmelon | 5 | 7–10 | 90–95 | High | Mod | High | Yes |
| Tomato (mature green) | 6 | 10–13 | 85–90 | Mod | High | Low | Yes |
| Banana | 6 | 13–15 | 85–90 | Mod | High | Low | Yes |
| Mango | 6 | 12–14 | 85–90 | Mod | Mod | Low | Yes |
| Papaya | 6 | 10–13 | 85–90 | High | High | Low | Yes |
| Avocado | 6 | 7–13 | 85–90 | High | High | Low | Yes |
| Pineapple | 6 | 8–13 | 85–90 | Low | Low | Mod | Yes |
| Sweet potato | 7 | 13–15 | 85–90 | Low | Mod | Low | Yes |
| Ginger | 7 | 12–14 | 65–75 | Low | Low | High | Yes |
| Pumpkin / winter squash | 7 | 10–13 | 50–70 | Low | Mod | Low | Yes |
Recommended midpoints from USDA Agriculture Handbook 66 and the UC-Davis Postharvest Technology Center compatibility chart. Verify against the current chart for your cultivar and transit.
How to read the result in five steps
- 1. Build the basket. Tap up to eight commodities you intend to store or ship together.
- 2. Read the matrix. Green cells ship together, amber are risky, red are a hard “never”.
- 3. Find the binding conflict. The headline names the worst axis — temperature, humidity, ethylene or odor.
- 4. Split into loads. The panel groups the basket into the fewest compatible loads with each load's shared temperature.
- 5. Set the reefer. Hold each load at its shared window — and never below a chilling-sensitive item's threshold.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I store apples and lettuce together?+
No — this is the textbook bad pairing. Apples are very-high ethylene producers and lettuce is highly ethylene-sensitive, so even though both hold at about 0°C and 95–100% humidity the ethylene from the apples turns the lettuce brown (russet spotting) and speeds decay. The tool flags the apple–lettuce cell red ("never") with ethylene as the binding conflict and puts them in separate loads.
How does the tool decide can-ship, risky or never?+
It judges every pair on four axes: do the recommended storage temperatures overlap, do the humidity ranges overlap, does one item produce enough ethylene to damage the other's ethylene sensitivity, and does one give off enough odor to taint the other. The worst of the four sets the pair's verdict, and the worst pair in the whole basket sets the load verdict. The binding conflict is whichever axis scored worst.
Why do onions and garlic need their own load?+
Onions and garlic store dry — only 65–75% relative humidity — while most fruits and vegetables want 90–95%. Co-loading them either over-dries the moist produce or sweats the onions. They are also very strong odor producers that taint odor-absorbing items like apples, carrots and potatoes. The tool flags the humidity mismatch and pulls the alliums into a separate dry, ventilated load.
What is an ethylene producer versus an ethylene-sensitive item?+
Ethylene is the natural ripening hormone. Producers — apples, pears, bananas, avocados, stone fruit, muskmelon — give it off as a gas. Sensitive items — lettuce, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, kiwifruit, watermelon — respond to even trace ethylene with yellowing, toughening, bitterness or accelerated decay. Putting a strong producer with a sensitive item in a sealed reefer is the most common avoidable spoilage cause this tool catches.
What does "split into N compatible loads" mean?+
When a basket can't all travel together, the tool partitions it into the fewest groups where no pair is a hard ("never") conflict. Each load card shows its members and the shared temperature window. So a five-item basket that fails as one load might split into, say, a 0°C ethylene-tolerant fruit load, a separate ethylene-sensitive vegetable load, and a dry onion load.
What temperature should a mixed load run at?+
When the items are compatible, hold the reefer at the overlap of all their recommended ranges — the tool reports this shared temperature window. The safe rule is the warmest item's minimum: never take a chilling-sensitive item (banana, cucumber, tomato) below its threshold just to satisfy a cold-stored item, because chilling injury is irreversible. If the windows don't overlap, that is itself a reason to split the load.
Which fruits are the strongest ethylene producers?+
In this database the very-high and high producers include apple, pear, apricot, peach, avocado, papaya and muskmelon. Bananas, mangoes, plums and tomatoes are moderate. These should be kept away from the ethylene-sensitive list, or ventilated and shipped over short transit times, to avoid triggering premature ripening and the cascade of softening and decay.
Does odor really transfer between commodities?+
Yes. Strong-smelling commodities — onions, garlic, leeks, ginger — give off volatiles that odor-absorbing items readily pick up. Apples, carrots, potatoes and pears are notorious absorbers and can taste of onion after sharing a store. The tool scores odor as its fourth axis and warns when a strong producer sits with an absorber even if temperature and humidity match.
What humidity should fresh produce be stored at?+
Most fruits and vegetables want 90–95% relative humidity to limit shrivel and weight loss; leafy greens and root crops often want 95–100%. The dry exceptions are onions, garlic and winter squash/pumpkin at 50–75%. Because the moist and dry classes can't share air, the tool treats a large humidity mismatch as a hard conflict, not just a minor one.
Is the underlying data authoritative?+
The temperature, humidity, ethylene and odor ratings follow USDA Agriculture Handbook 66 ("The Commercial Storage of Fruits, Vegetables, and Florist and Nursery Stocks") and the UC-Davis Postharvest Technology Center compatibility chart, which group commodities into seven storage classes. The values are recommended midpoints for planning; always confirm against the current chart and your own cultivar and transit conditions.
Can I plan a whole reefer or cold store with this?+
Yes — build the basket of everything you intend to load, read the matrix to spot the offending pairs, and use the split panel to see how many separate loads or store rooms you actually need and at what temperature each should run. It is built for produce buyers, packhouse managers, exporters and transport planners deciding what can legitimately ride together.
Why did a pair come back "risky" rather than "never"?+
"Risky" means the two share a window but it is narrow — a small temperature or humidity gap, or a moderate ethylene or odor interaction — so they can travel together if you manage it: pick the tighter shared temperature, keep transit short, and ventilate. "Never" means a hard incompatibility (chilling-injury temperature clash, dry-versus-moist humidity, or a strong producer into a highly sensitive item) where co-loading reliably causes loss.