Abstract: Cold chain storage and transportation provides strong guarantees for the safety and quality of fresh foods. Currently, the cold chain system in China is still under rapid development, and quality deterioration in fresh foods caused by uncontrolled cold chain conditions is nothing new. Therefore, rapid and sensitive detection of quality deterioration in fresh foods during cold chain storage and transportation is of great significance for timely and effective early warning and control of quality and safety risks of fresh foods. This article provides an overview of the rapid techniques reported in recent three years for the detection of quality deterioration in fresh food products in the cold chain, such as indicator methods, spectroscopy, and sensors, with a particular focus on those based on new materials (nanomaterials and composite materials), new devices (smartphones and smart packaging) and new approaches (artificial intelligence and neural networks), as well as the application of in-situ real-time mass spectrometry. The advantages and limitations of each method are discussed, and future development prospects are discussed to provide a reference for the development of new methods for the detection of quality deterioration in fresh food products in the cold chain.

Key words: cold chain transportation; rapid detection techniques; fresh foods; deterioration