Fresh Produce Instruments - Tomato Study

Nemeskert

CASE STUDY

Tomato packaging

H-6762 Sándorfalva & storage company

Endresz u. 6. Hungary

AiroCide PPT™ Photocatalytic Air Purifiers contain the same NASA-developed technology that is used in a variety of AiroCide product lines. In addition to serving the floral and perishable preservation and food safety industry the AiroCide™ technology has been developed to kill/remove/eliminate airborne pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms in vegetative and spore states (bacteria, mould, viruses and dust mites), allergens, odours and harmful volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) in air in a variety of commercial, government, and residential market applications including the medical healthcare industry (AiroCide is listed as an FDA Class II Medical Device)

Summary:

Tomato is one of the most popular vegetable on the market Greenhouse facilities are able to produce 11 months annually, the rest of the year technical maintenance happens Trussies of tomato has 25-40% higher prices, therefore the right storage condition is crucial

Facility:

Nemeskert Ltd is a second generations family company, was established in 1975, located south part of Hungary. 13 hectares of greenhouses heated by geothermal energy. Main product is the tomato, 9 hectares planted, annual yield is 4

4500 tones. Secondary products green peppers and hot green peppers, cucumber, lettuce. Since 2014 company has an audited packaging facility, with cooling rooms

Testing Protocol:

Comparable trial was made in 2 equal sizes cooling room (12 meters x 20 meters, 3 meters) For the trial we used four sample products from four different producers; the samples are marked as product 1,2,3,4 and each sample was placed in both coldrooms The cold-rooms are marked “B” and “D”. Both are set to 14 degrees Celsius. Cold room “B” is equipped with an Airocide GCS-100 Air Purification System Fridge “D” is equipped with an ethylene filtration system, its filters were changed seven days prior the beginning of trial. At the beginning of the trial (2016.08.03.), sample was taken from product 4 to laboratory analysis (see Attachment 1). At the end of the trial (2016.08.30.), samples from product 4 were once again sent to laboratory with the exception that we requested separate analyses for the samples stored in “B” and “D” cold rooms

Ethylen gas measurement was made by Bioconervacion ppm Ethylen unit, measurement range between 0-99.9 ppm

Ethylen gas measurement

Airocide in vertical position

As seen in the pictures, only a few mould spots can be detected in cooling room “B” stems are still green, has no mould on the surface The pictures are available in higher resolution at our warehouse These pictures show that mould appeared on the stems of the tomatoes stored in fridge “D” during storage, while no such issue occurred with tomatoes stored in fridge “B”.

Contact:

Nemeskert Kft.

H-6762 Sándorfalva Endresz u. 6. Phone: +36 30 219 57 00; +36 30 9255 655 info@nemeskert.hu www.nemeskert.hu

Packaging facility:

Kistelek

GPS: 46°28 804’; 20°0.130’ nemeskertcsomagolo@gmail.com

Kántor Zoltán