Cold stores play a crucial role in food distribution system and prolonging the shelf life of a food product.
The change in lifestyle has created the demand for processed and packaged food round the year and in-turn the demand for cold refrigerated warehouses. Also, lack of food supply and distribution system have played an important role in developing the cold storages. During the storage, supply and distribution of food products, maintaining their freshness is the biggest challenge.
To maintain the freshness, the food products are kept in a defined environment to reduce the risk of damage and extending their shelf life.
Mostly, the perishable products such as meat, poultry, seafood, fruits and vegetables are stored at lowest safe temperature and humidity level to increase storage life. Apart from it, concentration of carbon dioxide, ethylene are restricted as per the requirement of different stored products.
Depending on the type of food product being stored, Bry-Air provides customized solutions to take care of dehumidification, fresh air ventilation, and removal of harmful gases like ethylene and carbon dioxide.
Condensation and Frost Prevention
Problem-During, the loading and unloading of food items, the moisture load increases because of the door opening. It brings in the fresh air with higher moisture content. When the temperature falls below the dew point the moisture condenses on the cold surfaces like evaporator coils.
It leads to the following problems:
- Ice build-up on evaporator coils
- Inefficient cooling
- Frosting
- Dripping and slippery floors
- Product spoilage and sagging cartons
Solution-The most practical solution to tackle above challenges while maintaining the efficiency of freezing equipment is to incorporate sorbtion based humidity control equipment in the system. Certain quantity of fresh air, duly dehumidified must be introduced near the loading dock to create positive pressure, and to prevent ingress of moisture laden air while opening of the docking doors at time of loading. In a nutshell, install a ‘Dehumidified Air Curtain’ in the loading dock area.
Ethylene Removal
Problem-The fruits and vegetables emit gaseous hormones named as Ethylene. Ethylene degrades the fruits and vegetables, causes the following problems.
- Over ripening
- Rotting
- Internal browning
- Sprouting of seeds
Some fruits and vegetables such as apple, pear, plum releases ethylene in higher concentration. Also a variety of fruits and vegetables are sensitive to ethylene such as apple, banana, guavas etc.
Solution-Bry-Air Ethylene Scrubber (BES) extends post-harvest shelf life of fruits and vegetables. It also helps in retaining their natural essence. BES minimizes loss due to decay by removing ethylene in the cold store by process of adsorption and chemisorption. It ensures off season availability of fruits and vegetables and eliminates harmful preservation practice of using Nitrogen and Sulphur gas for removing ethylene.
Carbon Dioxide Reduction
Problem-When carbon dioxide (CO2) level increases in cold store it causes various problems, such as:
- Black heart
- Sprouting
- Reduced processing quality
- High utility bill
Dilution is the best solution to limit the CO2 levels within the acceptable limits. The conventional method opted by cold storage owners is opening up the windows to introduce fresh air into the cold storage chambers and thus diluting high CO2 concentrations. However, introducing fresh air directly into the chambers increases the load on refrigeration systems and results in higher utility bills. Solution-In order to maintain the CO2 concentrations and circulation of fresh air in a cost-effective way, DRI offers TFA (Treated Fresh Air unit) and ERVi (Energy Recovery Ventilator) with next generation heat recovery wheels. It helps in ventilate your cold storage chambers at low energy costs.
