Fine Fruits Company reports shelf-life gains with Airocide

Poeldijk-based wholesaler Fine Fruits Company has made a breakthrough in extending the shelf-life of avocados with the Airocide air purifying system.

Director Amir Devovic said the company was able to extend the life of its ready-to-eat avocados by 4-6 days, depending on origin after equipping its storage rooms with the Airocide unit. The avocados were from Spain, Morocco, Israel, Colombia, Mexico, South Africa and Tanzania.

“The first thing I want to highlight is that we clearly see the difference between when we use our Airocide unit and when we don’t,” he said.

“When used with green fruits, it extends storage time at least for one more week. If we only trigger avocados we have 7-10 days more and after we sell it, we still have a good fruit. Ready to eat can be extended 4-5 days, easily, because ready to eat produce more ethylene.”

Devovic said the unit is easy to use and can be plugged into the mains of existing coldstorage rooms. “For the biggest model that can cover area of maximum 1,133m³, the unit utilizes less than 4 amps with a power consumption of 390 watts,” he explained.

Airocide can be used for a range of fruits and vegetables. A case study on blueberries undertaken by the Agricultural University of Thessaloniki showed a shelf-life extension and weight loss reduction of up to 60 per cent.

According to another study from Nemeskert Kft in Hungary, the unit is also effective in preventing mould on the stems of tomatoes.

Airocide air purifying system was originally developed for NASA and has since been adopted by a wide range of industries including fresh produce. The unit offer effective protection against harmful contaminants, eliminating allergens, mycotoxins, viruses, pollen, airborne pathogens, bacteria, moulds, yeasts, spores, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), odours, smoke, and smells.

Airocide will be one of the solutions showcased by Netherlands-based Fresh Produce Instruments (FPI) at October’s Fruit Attraction trade fair in Madrid.

FPI specialises in the provision of specialist solutions for preventing mould, producing and removing unwanted ethylene and the non-destructive measuring of fruit quality. These include Catalytic Generators with ethy-gen II ripening concentrate and the Produce Quality Meter and Kiwifruit Quality Meter manufactured by Felix Instruments.