The research on the storage of agricultural products has been ongoing for over a century and its findings allow prolonging the life of any agricultural product. Much progress has been made in this area in the past twenty years; new forms and materials for storage and packaging have been developed as well as innovative technologies for preserving products, based on the ancient principle of maintaining a constant and stable ambient temperature.
Written by Ronit Gamliel
Scientists around the world have focused on exploring the processes taking place in the plant after its detachment from its vital source and conducted countless experiments in order to find appropriate temperatures in combination with air humidity levels and composition of gases in the atmosphere - that will extend the shelf life of the product after the harvest, without any damage to its appearance and typical characteristics.
Refrigeration engineering is considered a profession which is based on physical laws of hundreds of years and apparently there is no need for research to verify the unknown principles and processes. Therefore, agricultural fresh products can be included in the category of inanimate materials that exchange heat with their environment.
These physical processes of heat transfer, change of temperature, air movements and water content in the product, are based on the laws of classical physics - according to which, apparently, it is possible to precisely calculate each point within the process. When the appropriate combinations of environmental conditions for the storage of a particular product are known, the engineers can compute the machinery and the necessary elements accordingly, and consequently, they will design the corresponding machinery.
However, this is not the case since the post-harvest agricultural produce does not behave like an inanimate object that exchanges heat with its surroundings.
Recently, along with the accumulation of knowledge on the processes occurring in post-harvest products, it is possible to link elements that enable to designate appropriate conditions for each and every product and to predict their behavior in refrigerated storage.
The main trend nowadays is that the refrigeration engineering of agricultural products could reach the same level of sophistication as construction engineering in terms of predicting most accurately the behavior of agricultural products stored in refrigeration.
The results of the studies are implemented in a different manner than the way various crops are stored in the country. for example: peaches, nectarines, plums are stored in regular cooling systems, while apples and pears are stored in prolonged and humidity controlled refrigeration and grapes and herbs are stored in fast refrigeration with artificial air, while vegetables such as lettuce, celery and Chinese cabbage are stored in a vacuum refrigeration.
The development of the export of agricultural products in recent years has led to increasing the scope of agricultural produce in a way that requires constant improvement of customized and specific cooling systems. There is a need for development of supporting facilities and smart systems that provide a steady and stable level of humidity control through measures that will not damage the produce on the one hand, and that shall be economical and effective in lowering the temperature on the other hand, even under conditions of fast cooling.
Identifying and defining these needs brought the engineers of Agrocold Ltd. to work in collaboration with farmers and agriculturists in order to develop, implement and install smart cooling systems adapted uniquely and specifically to each crop. all variables are taken into account in the planning and set-up of the cooling systems,; variables that affect the freshness of the refrigerated produce from the harvest stage, through sorting and up to the storage stage and marketing of fresh produce to the end customer.
The smart refrigeration systems of Agrocold Ltd. integrate controlled systems of humidity, disinfection and ripening.
The smart refrigeration rooms of Agrocold Ltd. are manufactured with high precision using high quality materials and in accordance with the customer's schedule and requirements.
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