Exporters can reach new destinations with 'active' AC technology

12/01/2015

Ensuring that fresh fruits and vegetables reach distant places in the same condition as when they left the field presents major challenges to the fresh produce sectors and can be especially costly for some exporters.

However, for Thermo King finding a solution to these problems was key to developing its new controlled atmosphere products [AC] that promise to preserve the taste, quality and nutritional value of certain foods during the transport of sea freight.

The vice president of the company's global marine, train and bus segment, Michel van Roozendaal, and the product support manager, Tom Smet, went into more detail with Portalfruticola.com.

The new active technology of Thermo King, Magnum Plus Optima, is designed to slow down the aging process and maturation of fruits and vegetables during shipment.

Recently screened at a trade event in Rotterdam, the technology calls on global exporters who are looking for cost-effective control options for perishable cargo.

"The Optima unit is a controlled environment that uses active technology, a point that we like to underline, because there are a couple of other so-called controlled atmosphere units in the market, but we are proud that our units are a true active system"Said van Roozendaal.

"The idea and concept of this product is that it takes the atmosphere inside the container - say for fruits or vegetables - very quickly to the desired mixture between nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide so you can control the ripening process".

"You may want to delay the process or maybe speed it up. This technology is increasingly important when you think of the increase in world trade in fruits and vegetables in the widest variety"He commented.

The new system of Magnum Plus Optima helps maintain qualities such as firmness, freshness, reduces shrinkage and decay, adds van Roozendaal, and given the prolongation of the post-harvest life of agricultural products, the owners of the cargo can extend the shipping distance and reach unexplored markets.

For his part, Smet noted that another motivation for technology is the fact that global consumers expect to obtain fresh fruits and vegetables in the best conditions, and with the growth of the middle classes in emerging countries, this aspect will only become more important on an international level.

"Fresh fruits and vegetables are very similar to humans. During the maturation process they burn oxygen and turn it into carbon dioxide, and that deteriorates the quality of the products, so the way to stop that is -in the first place- to lower the temperature, something that we try to address with the new system"He said.

"The second way to stop the maturation process is to remove the oxygen so that the breathing process stops and you put your fresh fruits and vegetables in a kind of hibernation to keep them for a much longer period. That is the fundamental technology behind controlled atmosphere", He explained.

But what is to remove oxygen from the container in an "active" controlled manner?

"There are, fundamentally, two different ways of doing it; or you have a passive system - which is a bit lazy - where you have to rely on the natural respiration of the fruits to gradually lower the level of oxygen in the container. The process can take a good time, depending on the type of commodity"He commented.

"For bananas it could be quite fast because they have a very high rate of respiration, but for other products like berries, it can take a long time, even days, to reduce oxygen levels. So, as long as there is oxygen in the container, your product will continue to mature"He said.

"With an active system, of course you take an active approach. Our system actively removes oxygen from the container without depending on the respiration of the fruits so it can reduce the oxygen level much faster and, therefore, stop the breathing process much faster"He said.

Asked about how long fruit or vegetables can remain in a state of hibernation, Smet explained that some categories are more sensitive to oxygen than others.

"For example, for apples, it can be several months, for the banana could easily cover the entire route from Ecuador to Russia"He said.

"Apples and bananas are very sensitive to oxygen while the controlled atmosphere will have a limited influence on the pineapple, so it really depends on the merchandise and the commercial route"He said.

"Our intention is to increase the quality of fruits and vegetables delivered to consumers so our target market is cargo owners, transporters, exporters, importers and recipients in importing countries. They are the ones who benefit the most from this technology and, in fact, some exporters will allow them to explore new markets, giving them the opportunity to increase their business."He said.

Transporting tropical fruit by sea freight is possible

Sending some tropical fruit, such as mango, by sea can be difficult so a large amount of this type of cargo is transported by air.

"LMango transfer by plane is a very expensive solution, so with the atmosphere controlled, there is the opportunity to put the handle in a container and save a lot of money in logistics costs"Said Smet.

"This will be a very competitive price for comparable solutions and will be available in the course of 2015"He declared.

Exhibition of Thermo King technologies in Intermodal Europa 2014

Representatives of the company recently demonstrated their products at one of the world's leading container, transport and logistics events in Rotterdam. In addition to the active system, Thermo King also presented its passive cooling technology.

"It is a system in which we have patented the technology with a specific chemical composition that is maintained at a lower temperature and will absorb the exothermic energy produced by the fruit or vegetables, keeping the load at a constant temperature for a longer period of time that can be 12 to 20 days, depending on the circumstances"Explained van Roozendaal.

"The unit provides a low temperature, without needing a power supply, so it can be disconnected. This allows flexibility in the shipping units, since you can send the container without immediate access to power, so on board a container ship you can put the container in any position on board the ship, not necessarily in the Plug", He explained.

"When you have post-harvest transportation, you can do it without the need of a power supply on board the truck. The great advantage is that due to the nature of this passive system there is much less air circulation and air circulation usually leads to the degradation of the quality of fruits and vegetables, so you can send products with a higher quality"He added.

Van Roozendaal added that the passive system has received positive comments from transport lines that are 'quite fascinated' by the results of the trials that have been carried out to date.

This and other refrigerated systems will be presented at the Fruit Logistics Fair in Berlin, Germany.

Source: Fruit Portal