Use of IoT to Real-time Monitoring of Storage Silo and Ozone Gas Fungal Decontamination Strategy

During the food production process, qualitative losses are caused by biological contaminants (fungi, mycotoxins, and insects) and chemical contaminants (pesticide residues), widely found in grain storage. Several species of fungi, when they find ideal conditions for their development in the silos, cause damage to the grains (clod formation, grain heating, discoloration, loss of germination vigor, reduced nutritional value) and produce mycotoxins. With the advent of the new globalization, the demands for quality and sustainable products are becoming stronger. Thus, digital transformation is a differential for the productive market, inserting disruptive technologies, to become increasingly competitive. Therefore, monitoring of physical and biological conditions by intelligent systems in grain storage environments is required, as well as sustainable decontamination strategies (method-green). Therefore, in this article is proposed the use of IoT technology for monitoring and detecting the proliferation of different fungal species, having as parameters the temperature and humidity produced by fungal growth in (sites) of the grain storage silo. Besides, the use of ozone gas (GRAS generally recognized as safe) is proposed as a useful alternative for fungal decontamination inside the storage unit silos and an automated real-time gas release system.