Fruit & Vegetables
Extending the Shelf Life of Fruit and Vegetables
Food safety is vitally important to the food processing industry since all food items are extremely vulnerable to contamination. The uncontrolled growth of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and protozoa results in food spoilage, which reduces both the shelf life and yield of the product. The food industry always faces a challenging situation in minimizing microbial contamination, providing customers with the best possible product while protecting their narrow profit margins in a highly competitive market.
However, with the investment and effort made in producing quality products, it makes sense to take the appropriate steps to protect the product. Contamination can happen at any time during harvesting, processing, storage, or transportation. For many years, the traditional treatment of many fresh fruit and vegetable products was to wash them in either a ‘bath’ or flume with a liquid sterilant, e.g., chlorinated water. Unfortunately, these processes can result in damage or ‘bruising’ to the product, reducing yield and increasing the cost of getting fruits to market.
Saturn’s DiscMaster™ and DiscMatic™ Spraying Systems have proven extremely adept at solving the issues of applying a very fine precision spray of sterilant to the products as they pass through the machine, while ensuring that product handling problems are minimized. The ‘all over’ sterilant spray capability has proved particularly successful in the processing of berry fruits such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, grapes, blueberries, blackcurrants, and redcurrants. Peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and even ‘Portobello’ mushrooms have also benefited from the treatment, where the application of an organic sterilant has successfully extended the shelf life of these products. This not only benefits the supplier and the consumer but also ensures that the products are safe for consumption.
Such has been the success of this development that many suppliers of fruit and vegetable products to major supermarket chains have installed Saturn Spraying Systems’ machines in their production lines.