In the food sector, cold is the key to slowing down the growth of bacteria in products and thus preventing their deterioration or loss. Food safety and the cold chain go hand in hand. A good cold system that controls the temperature guarantees the safety and optimal preservation of our food.
If you want to know how much does a cold storage business make? First, you should know about its process and more details on the cold storage business, let’s find out everything in this guide.
In the food sector, cold is the key to slowing down the growth of bacteria in products and thus preventing their deterioration or loss. Food safety and the cold chain go hand in hand. A good cold system that controls the temperature guarantees the safety and optimal preservation of our food.
The cooling process:
During this process, constant monitoring of the target temperature that each product needs is essential for the correct conservation of the product.
When bacteria have nutrients, humidity, and favorable temperatures, they reproduce very easily and can cause diseases through food. For this, the microorganism has to reach the food or multiply through it due to a break in the cold chain or being at the wrong temperature in one of the stages. In the range called the Danger Zone (from 4ºC to 60ºC) the number of bacteria can double in less than 20 minutes.
It is necessary that both the cold storages and the trucks where the products are transported, as well as the displays and the cold trays, have devices capable of analyzing the temperature that is maintained at all times and being able to correct it in the event of a deviation. that can lead us to a fatal error.
Having an optimized, prepared, quality team and carrying out exhaustive preventive and predictive maintenance allows us to fully control the cold chain and, in turn, allows us to anticipate possible machinery failures to maintain all food in a state of conservation. and optimal marketing.
In addition, maintaining the cold chain correctly is a step forward when what we seek is sustainability and care for the environment. Achieving food safety that allows us to prevent the poor condition of the product, not only directly affects final consumers, but is also an important choice at a sustainable level, avoiding the generation of waste and residues.
And if we talk about sustainability, we must mention natural refrigerants, such as CO2 and NH3, which represent the present and future of the refrigeration process.
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1. Meat refrigeration:
From hatcheries, slaughterhouses, and cutting storages to conservation, transport, and final consumer, meat refrigeration is present in every process of the meat industry. Exposing meat to cold (chilling or freezing) is an efficient and very simple way to slow down the growth of bacteria, preventing the meat from deteriorating or becoming a health hazard.
Different properties depend on the refrigeration of the meat
- Raw meat can maintain its properties at -18ºC for up to 15 months.
- If we have vacuum-packed it, it could last between two and three years frozen (the normal thing in packing plants is that it does not last more than a year).
- When we freeze meat at -18ºC or lower temperatures, ice crystals form in it. This prevents microbes from taking advantage of the liquid water for their metabolism.
In the case of commercial refrigeration, this change must be done as quickly as possible (normally at -30ºC and high air velocity) so that the muscle fiber of the product does not break. Although it can stay fresh for up to seven days, it is advised that it should not spend more than three days on supermarket shelves. That is why perfect control and maintenance are essential, controlling the temperature at all times.
2. Fruit cooling:
The industrial refrigeration of fruits and vegetables is the best system to keep these foods fresh and increase their shelf life. Therefore, investing in commercial refrigeration and industrial refrigeration:
- Delays maturation and senescence (aging of tissue cells).
- Prevents the attack of microorganisms.
- Minimizes the global quantitative and qualitative losses of the products.
Refrigeration is carried out in cold storage in a controlled atmosphere, being ecological facilities if they use CO2, ammonia, and glycol as a refrigerant. These cold storages control the temperature, humidity, circulation, and renewal of air.
Cold storage temperature:
A high temperature will damage its tissues and destroy its enzymatic activity, if the temperature rises above 40ºC or 60ºC respectively, causing unpleasant alcoholic flavors and changes in the texture of the fruits.
On the other hand, a low temperature, freezing or close to it, will also cause unpleasant changes in taste and tissue breakage.
In the case of tropical fruits, especially sensitive to cold, they will suffer injuries such as blackening and changes in flavor, if they are subjected to temperatures between 5ºC and 14ºC for a certain period.
Humidity:
To avoid water loss and the acceleration of fruit senescence during ripening, the cold storage in which the fruits are stored must have high relative humidity.
The appropriate ones would be between 85 and 95%, generally, 90% for fruits and over 95% for vegetables, although the appropriate relative humidity for each product will depend on its surface/volume ratio. This value must be adequately controlled since an excess of humidity could cause the appearance and growth of molds.
Ventilation and industrial atmosphere in its conservation:
The atmosphere must be controlled with proper ventilation, to prevent the creation of an atmosphere with an oxygen level below 2% due to the fruit’s respiration. If this happens, the fruits that need oxygen to change color for ripening will remain green, and fermentation processes will begin, leading to fruit loss.
Therefore, cold storage storages must control the correct proportions of oxygen/CO2 at the same time that the ethylene naturally given off by the fruits due to their ripening will have to be controlled, eliminating it with adequate ventilation.
This blog is also worth reading for you:– How much does a cold storage cost?
How much does a cold storage business make?
Many investors have the same question how much does a cold storage business make, well if you will start this profitable business, then you can earn approx. 80 lakhs per year if you have 2000 MT of cold storage.
